A Delta flight flipping over while landing in Toronto. A missing commuter plane in Alaska. A medical transport jet crash in Philadelphia. A catastrophic midair collision over Washington, D.C. Plane accidents seem to be happening at a greater frequency than ever before. But is that actually the case? And what, if anything, do these disasters tell us about the state of aviation safety?

Today on Lever Time, Senior podcast producer Arjun Singh sits down with Bill McGee, senior fellow for aviation at the American Economic Liberties Project and one of the country’s foremost experts on the airline industry, to discuss the recent crashes and the state of airline safety regulations.

The backbone of aviation safety in the United States of America is The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), an organization that oversees aerospace safety and efficiency and is being targeted by President Donald Trump’s federal layoffs. But McGee says the FAA has been understaffed for years and has long been called “The Tombstone Agency” around Washington due to the organization’s tendency to only respond with a full investigation when a tragedy occurs.

To read an unedited transcript of the episode, click here.