The Trump administration has fired several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees as Americans reel from a series of plane crashes in recent weeks.
Probationary employees — that is, those who were hired less than a year ago — were fired via email on Friday, according to a statement from David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union.
The firings came just days before a Delta Airlines flight crashed at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, flipping over onto its roof as it attempted to land. At least 18 people were taken to the hospital after the Monday afternoon crash, including two adults and one child with critical injuries. Astonishingly, everyone on board survived.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading an investigation.
Hours after the Delta crash, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed some 400 employees had been fired, adding that none of them were air traffic controllers or “critical safety personnel.”
Duffy’s statement on the firings came in response to a tweet from his predecessor, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, questioning why the administration would move to fire FAA employees.
“The flying public needs answers,” Buttigieg wrote on X. “How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?”
Duffy claimed Buttigieg “failed” to address key issues within the FAA.
“Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system,” Duffy responded. “In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world.”
Meanwhile, Spero called the firings “shameful,” noting the agency is already facing a heavy workload and too few staff.
"These employees were devoted to their jobs and the safety critical mission of the FAA,” he said. “This draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin."
“Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs, he added. “To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. And it is especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month.”
Spero added it’s possible even more employees will be axed: “It is possible that others will be notified over the weekend or literally barred from entering FAA buildings on Tuesday, February 18.”
The FAA continues to investigate the cause behind the deadly collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight above Washington, D.C. last month. All 67 people on board both aircraft died, marking the deadliest commercial airline crash since 2001.
President Donald Trump also moved to fire all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee last month. The committee will technically continue to exist, the Associated Press reports, but it won’t have any members to carry out its work of examining safety issues at airports across the country.
The president also fired Transportation Security Administration head David Pekoske around the same time, according to the AP.
