I get that, but I think that "working to make a plane a lot safer" would still tick the box "working on a plane project". I would say this is even what happens in reality, otherwise you could just strap a jet engine under a bus.
I am all in favor of slowing down AI work to better focus on safety, and I would contest Zuckerberg telling him: "you know Mark, even if we are focusing on AI safety that doesn't mean we are slowing down progress on AI, if anything, we are accelerating it."