Safety fears as Trump cuts jobs at US Federal Aviation Administration
Hundreds of staff have been laid off at the US’ aviation safety agency just weeks after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people.
The Trump administration has fired hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees during a time when the flying public is looking for reassurance on safety.
About 400 probationary staff were fired from the federal government agency that regulates civil aviation, weeks after the Washington DC air disaster that killed 67 people.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said “probationary” meant the sacked employees had been hired less than a year ago and “zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go”.
Acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau has also assured “the agency has retained employees who perform safety critical functions”.
But the union that represents workers who were fired and former FAA employees disagree.
Professional Aviation Safety Specialists national president David Spero described the lay-offs as “shameful”.
“This draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin,” Mr Spero said in a statement.
He said the FAA was already challenged by understaffing.
“Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. 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,” Mr Spero said.
The union told US media the cut jobs included systems specialists, safety inspectors and maintenance mechanics that maintained air traffic control systems, and flight and route maps.
A former FAA certified technician told Associated Press that defining someone’s position as “critical to safety” can come down to whether that person is authorised to perform a certified inspection, and those fired may not have been doing the inspections but were supporting the work.
“It’s a stretch, but that is usually where they can draw a line to say, ‘If you can certify stuff, then you have a safety critical job. And if you don’t certify stuff, you don’t have a safety critical job,’” Philip Mann told AP.
Mr Mann said the loss of staff would have “long-term safety implications”.
Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, an FAA employee who was fired, said he was shocked he was let go as he was part of the FAA national defence program.
“I was working on incredibly important national security work,” he told CNN.
He said: “I do think the American public does need to be concerned.”
Mr Spitzer-Stadtlander said the Trump administration’s claim that no staff that performed safety critical functions were terminated was from his perspective, a “flat-out false statement”.
Jason King, another FAA employee who was laid off after about eight months in his job, told Washington television station WUSA9 that firing people “directly involved with safety” like himself was “concerning for public safety in our national airspace.”
“Aviation safety should never be treated as a budget item that can just be completely cut,” Mr King said, who worked on safety teams investigating incidents.
“Weakening the FAA’s safety efforts threatens public trust and increases the likelihood of future accidents.”
Musk sends SpaceX team to visit air traffic command centre
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is leading a drastic cost-cutting and federal workforce reduction.
On Monday, a team from Mr Musk’s SpaceX was set to visit the command centre of the FAA with a brief for suggesting safety improvements in the wake of a deadly crash in Washington last month.
The visit, announced on Sunday by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, raised some eyebrows given the FAA investigated and fined SpaceX on numerous occasions – sometimes over safety issues.
Donald Trump, who has tapped top ally and donor Mr Musk to slash the size of the federal government, has taken particular aim at the FAA over its hiring policies.
“America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world,” Mr Duffy said.
He added that SpaceX staff will take a “first-hand look” around when they visit the Air Traffic Control System Command Center, which works to balance demand for flights in the United States with the capacity to handle them.
It is also home to a team that tracks data about commercial space launches and re-entries and the status of various space missions, according to its website.
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“The safety of air travel is a nonpartisan matter,” said Mr Musk, whose federal cost-cutting drive has raised concerns about conflicts of interest with his companies, several of which – such as SpaceX – hold major government contracts.
“SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer,” he wrote on social platform X, which he also owns.
– with AFP
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