Latest news with #NationalDefenseProgram
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Layoffs hit FAA, including employees tasked with producing air traffic navigation maps
The Trump administration's mass layoffs across federal agencies have hit the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has terminated over 100 probationary employees. That includes some of those who work on the team responsible for producing air traffic navigation maps, multiple sources told ABC News. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), which represents over 11,000 FAA employees, said 132 probationary employees were terminated. MORE: Here are all the federal agencies where workers are being fired "We believe all of these employees are critical not only to the frontline safety workers, but to the entire aviation ecosystem," PASS National President Dave Spero told ABC News in a statement. The FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation have insisted no critical employees were let go. Overall, the FAA employees about 45,000 people. Some of the employees impacted were part of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) en route charting group, which is responsible for maintaining and updating Enroute Navigation Charts used in the National Airspace System and by air traffic controllers around the country, sources told ABC News. Those terminations were communicated via email early Saturday morning. MORE: Trump administration moves up TPS expiration date for Haitian migrants "I was three weeks shy of my probationary employment with the FAA, and I received an email late Friday night into Saturday morning, outlining my termination effective immediately," one of the FAA employees who was laid off told ABC News. "It was a shock given the fact how critical my position was with public safety, with air travel." The employee, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, said that inside the FAA, there is "a lot of fear for public safety" given the layoffs. "If we're no longer there to create the maps that air traffic air traffic controls are using, mistakes will eventually happen," they said. According to the FAA website, the Air Traffic Organization is the "operational arm" of the FAA. "It is responsible for providing safe and efficient air navigation services to 29.4 million square miles of airspace. This represents more than 17 percent of the world's airspace and includes all of the United States and large portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico," the website states. Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, who was an employee at the FAA's National Defense Program and was also the FAA lead for open mission systems support replacement and the Hawaii National Defense Program, told ABC News that his termination caught him off guard. He said that at the time of hiring, it was explained to him that he was required to work even during a government shutdown. "My position was a public safety, national defense critical position, because I was required to work whenever there was a government shutdown," he said, adding, "So when a government shutdown occurred, I was required to work because national security, national defense, public safety doesn't care whether or not Congress can get its act together to actually pass a budget." Spitzer-Stadtlander told ABC that late on the night of Feb. 14, he was locked out of his work program and computer systems and, shortly after midnight, he received an email notifying him that he had been terminated. 'My immediate thought was that I had been hacked … It was nowhere on my radar that I was at risk of being fired," Spitzer-Stadtlander said. MORE: Fired Forest Service, Park Service workers say cuts will be felt on fire lines The email he received, viewed by ABC, stated: 'DOT FAA finds that based on your performance you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the DOT FAA would be in the public interest. For this reason, the DOT FAA is removing you from your position with DOT FAA and the federal civil service effective today.' Spitzer-Stadtlander said he had recently undergone a performance review where he received an 'excellent' evaluation, and he had also been awarded a merit-based performance value for performance pay raise that was set to go into effect in the pay period he was fired. He told ABC that he has retained counsel and plans to appeal the termination decision. The FAA did not respond to ABC's requests for comment on Spitzer-Stadtlander's termination. Layoffs hit FAA, including employees tasked with producing air traffic navigation maps originally appeared on
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Layoffs hit FAA, including employees tasked with producing air traffic navigation maps
The Trump administration's mass layoffs across federal agencies have hit the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has terminated over 100 probationary employees. That includes some of those who work on the team responsible for producing air traffic navigation maps, multiple sources told ABC News. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), which represents over 11,000 FAA employees, said 132 probationary employees were terminated. MORE: Here are all the federal agencies where workers are being fired "We believe all of these employees are critical not only to the frontline safety workers, but to the entire aviation ecosystem," PASS National President Dave Spero told ABC News in a statement. The FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation have insisted no critical employees were let go. Overall, the FAA employees about 45,000 people. Some of the employees impacted were part of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) en route charting group, which is responsible for maintaining and updating Enroute Navigation Charts used in the National Airspace System and by air traffic controllers around the country, sources told ABC News. Those terminations were communicated via email early Saturday morning. MORE: Trump administration moves up TPS expiration date for Haitian migrants "I was three weeks shy of my probationary employment with the FAA, and I received an email late Friday night into Saturday morning, outlining my termination effective immediately," one of the FAA employees who was laid off told ABC News. "It was a shock given the fact how critical my position was with public safety, with air travel." The employee, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, said that inside the FAA, there is "a lot of fear for public safety" given the layoffs. "If we're no longer there to create the maps that air traffic air traffic controls are using, mistakes will eventually happen," they said. According to the FAA website, the Air Traffic Organization is the "operational arm" of the FAA. "It is responsible for providing safe and efficient air navigation services to 29.4 million square miles of airspace. This represents more than 17 percent of the world's airspace and includes all of the United States and large portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico," the website states. Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, who was an employee at the FAA's National Defense Program and was also the FAA lead for open mission systems support replacement and the Hawaii National Defense Program, told ABC News that his termination caught him off guard. He said that at the time of hiring, it was explained to him that he was required to work even during a government shutdown. "My position was a public safety, national defense critical position, because I was required to work whenever there was a government shutdown," he said, adding, "So when a government shutdown occurred, I was required to work because national security, national defense, public safety doesn't care whether or not Congress can get its act together to actually pass a budget." Spitzer-Stadtlander told ABC that late on the night of Feb. 14, he was locked out of his work program and computer systems and, shortly after midnight, he received an email notifying him that he had been terminated. 'My immediate thought was that I had been hacked … It was nowhere on my radar that I was at risk of being fired," Spitzer-Stadtlander said. MORE: Fired Forest Service, Park Service workers say cuts will be felt on fire lines The email he received, viewed by ABC, stated: 'DOT FAA finds that based on your performance you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the DOT FAA would be in the public interest. For this reason, the DOT FAA is removing you from your position with DOT FAA and the federal civil service effective today.' Spitzer-Stadtlander said he had recently undergone a performance review where he received an 'excellent' evaluation, and he had also been awarded a merit-based performance value for performance pay raise that was set to go into effect in the pay period he was fired. He told ABC that he has retained counsel and plans to appeal the termination decision. The FAA did not respond to ABC's requests for comment on Spitzer-Stadtlander's termination. Layoffs hit FAA, including employees tasked with producing air traffic navigation maps originally appeared on
Arab News
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Trump begins firings of FAA staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash
WASHINGTON: 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 midair 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. A Transportation Department official told the AP late Monday that no air traffic controllers were affected by the cuts, and that the agency has 'retained employees who perform critical safety functions.' In a follow-up query the agency said they would have to look into whether the radar, landing and navigational aid workers affected were considered to handle critical safety functions. 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 Defense Department. 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. Due to the nature of their work, staff in that office typically provide an extensive knowledge transfer before retiring to make sure no institutional knowledge is lost, said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, one of the employees in that branch who was terminated. The Hawaii radar and the FAA National Defense Program office working on it are 'about protecting national security,' Spitzer-Stadtlander said. 'I don't think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.' 'This is about protecting national security, and I'm scared to death,' Spitzer-Stadtlander said. 'And the American public should be scared too.' Spero said messages began arriving after 7 p.m. Friday and continued late into the night. More might be notified over the long weekend or barred from entering FAA buildings 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' Microsoft email address' — not a government email address. A copy of the termination email that was provided to the AP shows the sending address 'ASK_AHR_EXEC_Orders@ The firings hit the FAA as it is facing a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at US 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 crash between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet, which is still under investigation, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport. Just days before the collision, President Donald Trump had already fired all the members 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. Spitzer-Stadtlander suggested he was targeted for firing for his views on Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, not as part of a general probationary-level sweep. Both companies are owned by Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency is leading Trump's effort to cut the federal government. Spitzer-Stadtlander is Jewish and was angered by Musk's straight-arm gesture at Trump's inauguration. On his personal Facebook page he urged friends to get rid of their Teslas and X accounts in response. Spitzer-Stadtlander said that post drew the attention of a Facebook account labeled 'Department of Government Efficiency,' which reacted with a laughing emoji. Soon after, he saw the same account reacting to much older posts through his personal Facebook feed. There are at least a half-dozen Facebook accounts labeled 'Department of Government Efficiency,' and it's unclear who operates any of them. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt wrote Monday on X, 'DOGE doesn't even have a Facebook page.' 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. 'Less than a week later, I was fired, despite my position allegedly being exempted due to national security,' Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote in a post over the weekend on LinkedIn. He added, 'When DOGE fired me, they turned off my computer and wiped all of my files without warning.' DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firings were first reported by CNN.
Chicago Tribune
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash
WASHINGTON — 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. Due to the nature of their work, staff in that office typically provide an extensive knowledge transfer before retiring to make sure no institutional knowledge is lost, said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, one of the employees in that branch who was terminated. The Hawaii radar and the FAA National Defense Program office working on it 'is about protecting national security,' Spitzer-Stadtlander said. 'I don't think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.' 'This is about protecting national security, and I'm scared to death,' Spitzer-Stadtlander said. 'And the American public should be scared too.' 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' Microsoft email address' — not a government email address. A copy of the termination email that was provided to the AP shows the sending address from the address 'ASK_AHR_EXEC_Orders@ The firings hit the FAA when it faces a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials have been raising concerns 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 crash between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet, which is still under investigation, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport. Just days before the collision, President Donald Trump had already fired all the members 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. Spitzer-Stadtlander suggested he was targeted for firing for his views on Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, not as part of a general probationary-level sweep. Both companies are owned by Elon Musk, who is leading Trump's effort to cut the federal government. Spitzer-Stadtlander is Jewish and was angered by Elon Musk's straight arm saluting at Trump's inauguration. On his personal Facebook account he urged friends to get rid of their Teslas and 'X,' or Twitter, accounts in response. That post drew the attention of a DOGE Facebook account, which reacted with a laughing emoji. Soon after, he saw the same account reacting to much older posts through his personal Facebook feed. 'The official DOGE Facebook page started harassing me on my personal Facebook account after I criticized Tesla and Twitter,' Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote in a post over the weekend on Linked In. '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.
Voice of America
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash
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 affected 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. Due to the nature of their work, staff in that office typically provide an extensive knowledge transfer before retiring to make sure no institutional knowledge is lost, said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, one of the employees in that branch who was terminated. The Hawaii radar and the FAA National Defense Program office working on it 'is about protecting national security," Spitzer-Stadtlander said. 'I don't think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, 'oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.'' 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 firings hit the FAA when it faces a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials have been raising concerns 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 crash between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet, which is still under investigation, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport. Just days before the collision, President Donald Trump had already fired all the members 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. 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.
