Layoffs began at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just weeks after the deadly collision between a commercial passenger jet and a military Blackhawk helicopter outside of Washington, D.C.
Probationary workers were notified they had been terminated in a late-night email on Friday, The Associated Press reported, citing a statement from David Spero, the president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union.
The emails reportedly began showing up in employees' inboxes around 7 p.m. EST and Spero indicated more notifications could be sent out over the weekend.
“This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing," Spero said according to an NBC News report. “Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety."
According to the AP, Spero said the nearly 300 employees were let go "without cause nor based on performance or conduct," and he noted that some people might be denied access to FAA buildings on Tuesday after returning from the Presidents Day holiday weekend.
Impacted FAA personnel reportedly include radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance workers.
The layoffs come in the aftermath of the midair collision between an American Airlines flight that was coming in for a landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport and a military Blackhawk on a training mission.
Sixty-seven people were killed in the crash, and the FAA came under heavy scrutiny following the worst air disaster in the United States in 20 years.
The terminations also come shortly after Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pledged to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to trim agency spending levels while also addressing "antiquated" FAA systems and hiring more air traffic controllers.
"We are working with the FAA to [learn], how do we surge the best and the brightest to get into the academy, to get trained up, to make sure we don't have the staffing issues," Duffy said earlier this month. "Our air traffic controllers are stressed out, tapped, overworked. That's no excuse. It's just the reality of what we have in the system."
Duffy pointed to how long it takes to train air traffic controllers, saying it takes years to prepare someone for the job.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served in the previous Biden administration, said the "flying public needs answers" on the firings.
"How many FAA personnel were fired?" Buttigieg wrote in a post on social platform X. "What positions? And why?"
Officials have raised concerns since the deadly Washington collision about FAA staffing shortages. The Hill reported that Duffy said on Sunday he will visit the FAA Academy later this week to take a look at how air traffic controllers are trained.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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