Musk/Trump respond to increase in plane crashes with indiscriminate mass firings of people in an already understaffed agency
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Apparently, Republicans saw the exceptional safety record of commercial air travel in the United States over the last 20 years as a problem that needs to be addressed:
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.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a brief statement Monday it was “analyzing the effect of the reported federal employee terminations on aviation safety, the national airspace system and our members.”
Other FAA employees who were fired were working on an urgent and classified early warning radar system the Air Force had announced in 2023 for Hawaii to detect incoming cruise missiles, through a program that was in part funded by the Department of Defense. It’s one of several programs that the FAA’s National Defense Program manages that involve radars providing longer-range detection around the country’s borders.
Well, at least eggs are being made less expen….oh.
Miss him yet?
The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Plane crash of unknown severity this afternoon in Toronto involving a Delta flight from Minneapolis. www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/loca…
[image or embed]— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 12:09 PM