President Donald Trump has resumed firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, upending personnel on a busy air travel weekend, despite a string of plane crashes in the United States. The firings occurred during a crucial period when several high-profile airline crashes were occurring in the United States. Only a few weeks prior, a passenger on American Airlines killed everyone on board when they collided with a military Black Hawk chopper in Washington, DC.
Donald Trump fired every member of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which is in charge of airline and airport safety, just days prior to the crash in Washington, DC. 18 people were hurt when a Delta Airlines aircraft crashed earlier in the day at Toronto International Airport, landing belly-up on the tarmac.
During the FAA layoffs, several probationary officers received late-night emails on Friday informing them of their termination. One air traffic controller told AP that the affected employees include those employed for FAA radar, landing, and navigational aid maintenance.
The FAA employees were terminated “without cause nor based on performance or conduct”. Also, the termination emails came from “an exec order Microsoft email address”.
Not even the government email address is present in the email.
A few weeks after the deadliest US civil aviation catastrophe in decades, a union that represents air safety workers said it is examining the repercussions from a series of terminations that occurred late Friday and touched US Federal Aviation Administration employees.
In a statement, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which advocates for engineers, air traffic controllers, and other aviation safety experts, said that …
“is analyzing the effect of the reported federal employee terminations on aviation safety, the national airspace system, and our members.”
NATCA President Nick Daniels said there was no proof that the blasts were linked to poor performances of the FAA employees and said.
“It’s a sad day for those who chose to serve in aviation safety and public service, only to have their careers cut short. There is no evidence that these firings were about poor performance.”
