The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day.
According to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) union, “several hundred” workers received termination notices on Friday.
Many of the workers were probationary employees, those employed for less than a year and lacking job protections, which makes them low-hanging fruit for the Trump administration’s streamlining efforts.
According to the US Office of Personnel Management, there are about 200,000 probationary employees within the federal government.
The firings at the FAA do not include air traffic controllers, but did appear to include engineers and technicians.
A spokesperson for the union said no probationary technicians had been fired, citing about 133 job cuts so far.
The positions terminated included maintenance mechanics, aeronautical information specialists, environmental protection specialists, aviation safety assistants and management administration personnel, but did not include airway transportation systems specialists who maintain and certify air traffic control equipment
Former FAA air traffic controller Dylan Sullivan claimed on social media that agency personnel who were terminated “maintain every piece of equipment that keeps flying safe, from the radars to the ILS, to ATC automation”.
Job cuts at the FAA are likely to raise concerns. The agency has struggled to recruit air traffic controllers in recent years. An increase in recruitment during the previous two administrations was hobbled by budget cuts that limited training and certification.
The move also comes less than three weeks since a midair collision between an army helicopter and a civilian jet over Washington DC that killed 67 people. Initial reports suggested there was just one air traffic controller working both civilian and military flights in the notoriously busy airspace at the time of the collision.
Since then, seven people died when a plane crashed near Philadelphia; 10 died when another crashed in Alaska; and one person died when the landing gear on a private plane belonging to the Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil failed as it landed and crashed into another parked aircraft.
On Monday, a Delta aircraft flipped over when arriving at Pearson international airport in Toronto, Canada, with 80 people onboard. Early reports suggested all survived.
The Pass union, which represents more than 11,000 FAA and Department of Defense workers who install, inspect and maintain air traffic control systems, posted on its website: “Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety.”
David Spero, national president of Pass, said on X of the fired employees: “They are our family, friends, neighbors. Many are veterans. It is shameful to toss aside dedicated public servants.”
Spero added that the move was “especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month”.
The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said on X that he “talked to the DOGE [‘department of government efficiency’] team” and “they are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system”. Aviation experts have long pointed to outdated air traffic control systems used by the FAA as a source of concern.
The Doge head, Elon Musk, later reposted Duffy, saying his department will “aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system”.
Probationary employees targeted by Doge have little recourse to employment tribunals.
On Sunday, it was reported that some probationary employees with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were let go and then reinstated. The Department of Energy later said that fewer than 50 were removed from “primarily administrative and clerical roles”.
Federal News Network, a federal government news source, said it had obtained a termination letter to an employee at the Department of Agriculture that indicated that the onus is on the employee to demonstrate why they should not be fired.
“Until the probationary period has been completed, a probationer has ‘the burden to demonstrate why it is in the public interest for the government to finalize an appointment to the civil service for this particular individual’. The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest. For this reason, the agency informs you that the agency is removing you from your position.”
Sullivan, the former FAA air traffic controller, said in his social media post: “FAA technicians undergo years of specialized training to maintain mission critical systems and cannot be replaced quickly. In the 30 years since I began my controller career, we have never had a surplus of technicians and engineers.
“Once our aviation safety infrastructure is compromised, it will take decades to bring it back. Money will not be saved and lives may be lost.”
