Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane ******

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Probationary workers were targeted in late night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement.

The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told the Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox

See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.

Spero said messages began arriving after 7 p.m. on Friday and continued late into the night. More might be notified over the long weekend or barred from entering FAA buildings on Tuesday, he said.

The employees were fired “without cause nor based on performance or conduct,” Spero said, and the emails were “from an ‘exec order’

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

email address” — not a government email address.

The firings hit the FAA when it faces a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements.

In the Jan. 29 fatal ****** between a U.S. Army ****** Hawk helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet, which is still under investigation, one controller was handing

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at the busy airport.

Just days before the collision, President Donald Trump had already

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, a panel mandated by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The committee is charged with examining safety issues at airlines and airports.

One FAA employee who was fired over the weekend suggested he was targeted for his views on Tesla and X, formerly

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, not as part of a general probationary-level sweep. Both are owned by Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s effort to cut the federal government.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

posted on LinkedIn that he was fired just after midnight Saturday, days after he started getting harassing messages on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

“The official DOGE

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

page started harassing me on my personal

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

account after I criticized Tesla and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,” Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote. “Less than a week later, I was fired, despite my position allegedly being exempted due to national security.”

He added: “When DOGE fired me, they turned off my computer and wiped all of my files without warning.”

Spitzer-Stadtlander said he was supposed to be exempted from the probationary firings because the FAA office he worked in focused on national security threats such as attacks on the national airspace by drones.

The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firings were first reported by CNN.

—-

Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed from Washington.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Trump #begins #firings #FAA #air #traffic #control #staff #weeks #fatal #plane #******

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up