Celebrity lawyer F. Lee Bailey of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) stated, "This guy Shaffer has got to go.

"[5] The FAA and Shaffer were both later attacked by the PATCO for continuing to operate the air traffic system despite the low number of controllers.

[6] Following his retirement from the FAA, Shaffer was involved in a debate over the use of microwave landing systems in civil aviation and which country's industry should be awarded a contract for construction of the equipment: the US, UK, or Germany.

[7] On June 12, 1972, American Airlines Flight 96 safely performed an emergency landing in Detroit, Michigan, after a cargo door broke off the plane – a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 – while in the air.

He argued that the change might not have been made even under an airworthiness directive, because the FAA trusted manufacturers to self-certify fixes and did not verify compliance.