Donald Trump has made good on a promise to slash hordes of workers from the Federal Aviation Administration, despite four deadly air crashes during his short second tenure as president, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed Monday.
A raft of termination emails were reportedly fired off on Friday, with the numbers of probationary employees facing dismissal in the “hundreds,” according to trade union center AFL-CIO.
CNN reported that staffers could even be blocked from entering FAA facilities on Tuesday when they return from the Presidents Day break.
David Spero, national president of The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, or PASS, said the move to cull probation workers is a “dangerous” one.
“Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs,” Spero told CNN. “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.”
The move comes less than three weeks after a U.S. Army helicopter collided with a passenger jet that was about to land in Washington, D.C., killing 67, and an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven. Ten people died when a regional flight in Alaska went missing and was found crashed, earlier this month. Days later one person died in Scottsdale, Arizona, when a plane veered off the runway and collided with a parked aircraft.
Just a day after he was sworn in, Trump signed the executive order “Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation,” eliminating DEI hiring procedures in aviation. This motion also aimed to initiate performance reviews for “individuals in critical safety positions.”
Trump has fired the TSA Administrator and Coast Guard Commandant, as well as members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, who advise on aviation security.
CNN reported in May last year that air traffic control stations were facing a shortage of 3,000 controllers.
It comes after reports that DOGE head Elon Musk and his minions will be allowed to oversee air traffic procedures, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Duffy said on Fox’s Hannity show earlier this month that he is ready to let the cost-cutting squad shape a new air traffic control system at “the speed of business, not bureaucracy.”
“They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” tweeted Duffy days earlier, in a message re-shared by Musk. He added that DOGE “aim[s] to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”
