Latest news with #ProfessionalAviationSafetySpecialists
Axios
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
FAA fires hundreds of staff amid Trump admin job cuts drive
The Trump administration fired "less than 400" of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) 45,000 employees, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday evening. The big picture: The Trump administration's push to make large-scale reductions in the federal workforce in a cost-cutting drive has been criticized by some, including the union that represents the FAA and Duffy's Democratic predecessor, Pete Buttigieg. Driving the news: Duffy's comments on X were in response to Buttigieg's criticism. Those "let go" were "all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago," Duffy said. He added: "Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go." Zoom out: David Spero, the leader of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, which represents FAA employees, said in a Saturday statement that the agency "is already challenged by understaffing." Spero said the action was "unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month," including the fatal collision near Reagan Washington National Airport outside D.C. between a passenger plane and Army helicopter, which killed 67 people. Duffy's post did not address Spero's comments that the affected employees had been sent messages "from an 'exec order' Microsoft email address," rather than an official .gov address. Read the full X exchange between Duffy and Buttigieg below: Go deeper: Musk's SpaceX personnel visiting FAA to suggest improvements
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Pilots would quite literally be flying blind' without our team, says fired FAA worker after DOGE cuts
Firing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees is a different beast than firing paper-pushers at other federal agencies. I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) A near-record number of Americans are grappling with $1,000 car payments and many drivers can't keep up. Here are 3 ways to stay ahead Protect your retirement savings with these 5 essential money moves — most of which you can complete in just minutes FAA employees are commonly tasked with ensuring air safety, and given a string of recent incidents that were all over the news, it seems like the Trump administration's staff cuts come at a time when flyers are on edge. Confidence in air travel has dipped this year, according to a recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It found the American public is most confident in the ability of pilots to maintain air safety and they have the least amount of confidence in federal government agencies. More than 130 of the recent batch of FAA job cuts were positions that directly or indirectly supported air traffic control, facilities, and technology used to keep planes and passengers safe, according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists. Now it's worth noting that as per Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, fewer than 400 people were let go at the FAA — an agency that employs 45,000 people. Duffy also noted that all terminated employees were probationary — meaning, they were hired less than a year prior to their dismissal — and no one with a 'critical safety' position was fired. But one recently terminated FAA employee told Politico they were a member of a team of 12 whose job is to create air maps — the preplanned routes that pilots and controllers use to guide airplanes. "Air traffic controllers cannot do their work without us," said the aeronautical information specialist. "Without our team ... pilots would quite literally be flying blind." It's not clear how many members of the team were laid off. They said workers were 'targeted just as a senseless line item on an Excel sheet.' "I do think the American public does need to be concerned, about not only my firing but also the firing of so many public safety [and] national security professionals at the FAA," said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, another fired FAA employee who was a part of an initiative established to detect incoming missiles, to People. The dismissal of hundreds of FAA employees could lead to an uptick in flight delays and cancellations. And the fear is that it could increase the risk of accidents. So it's important to know your rights as a passenger in these situations. The Department of Transportation says, "Airlines are required to adhere to the promises that they make in their customer service plan, including commitments to care for customers in the event of controllable delays or cancellations." Read more: Home prices in America could fly through the roof in 2025 — here's the big reason why and how to take full advantage (with as little as $10) It also says that if an airline cancels your flight or makes a significant change to its departure time, you're entitled to a refund should you choose not to get rebooked. This holds true even if you purchased a non-refundable ticket. But from there, the compensation you're entitled to depends on the airline you've booked with and the situation at hand. Delta, for example, will give you a free hotel room if you're affected by an overnight cancellation. And you're entitled to a meal voucher for a delay of three hours or more. Your best bet is to consult this dashboard from the Department of Transportation, which covers the policies of 10 major U.S. airlines, to see what rights you have in the event of a cancellation or delay. That said, as a passenger, you can always ask an airline to go above and beyond its typical policy. For example, if a flight delay causes you to miss an event that you paid for, you may be able to convince the airline to reimburse you for your tickets. You should also know that you may be able to sue an airline if you sustain an injury during a flight due to their negligence. But for that, you'll generally need to consult an attorney. And compensation is awarded on a case-by-case basis. Earlier in February, a Delta flight turned upside following a turbulent landing in Toronto. Two passengers have since sued the airline for negligence and are seeking compensation for their injuries — both physical and emotional. Delta has already offered $30,000 in compensation to passengers on that flight, saying the money "has no strings attached and does not affect rights." Whether some individual passengers get more will depend on how their lawsuits shake out. Jamie Dimon issues a warning about the US stock market — says prices are 'kind of inflated.' Crashproof your portfolio with these 3 rock-solid strategies 'I like this stuff': Self-made $500M mogul and YouTuber reveals his 'essential' US portfolio that he says Amazon 'can't hurt' — here's his secret formula and how you can copy it in 2025 Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Air traffic controllers cannot do their work without us'
The first wave of White House-ordered firings at the Federal Aviation Administration included employees who play important roles in the safety of air travel — despite the Trump administration's assurances that no 'critical' staff had been axed. More than 130 of the eliminated workers held jobs that directly or indirectly support the air traffic controllers, facilities and technologies that the FAA uses to keep planes and their passengers safe, according to the union that represents them, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists. That alone creates reason for concern about the impact of the cuts, people familiar with the terminations said, even if the initial firings spared the air traffic controllers themselves. Worries about U.S. air safety have escalated since 67 people died in a crash Jan. 29 between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter in the skies near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 'I would argue that every job at the FAA right now is safety critical,' said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant who was a longtime official at both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates accidents. These cuts 'certainly [are] not going to improve safety — it can only increase the risk,' he said. One of the people let go last week worked as an aeronautical information specialist, a member of a team of 12 just outside of Washington whose job is to create air maps or 'highways in the sky,' the preplanned routes that pilots and controllers use to guide airplanes. 'Air traffic controllers cannot do their work without us,' the former employee said in an interview Wednesday. The employee, granted anonymity to discuss their recent firing candidly, said they believe the administration didn't understand how essential these jobs are for safety but that instead the workers were 'targeted just as a senseless line item on an Excel sheet.' 'To put it frankly, without our team ... pilots would quite literally be flying blind,' the former employee said. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that fewer than 400 people on probationary status were let go at the FAA, but neither his agency nor the White House has provided details about what jobs they held. Instead, he and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have issued statements narrowly focusing on the idea that air traffic controllers and others in 'critical' safety roles did not lose their jobs. 'Here's the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago,' Duffy wrote in a social media post this week, echoing a similar posting by Leavitt hours before that said: 'No air traffic controllers nor any professionals who perform safety critical functions were terminated.' Duffy doubled down in a Fox News opinion piece, writing Wednesday that he 'won't be derailed by misleading media coverage,' calling a CNN headline about the firings 'clickbait' and emphasizing again that no controllers were fired. DOT and the FAA did not return requests for comment. In response to similar questions, DOT has previously referred POLITICO to a statement from a spokesperson saying the FAA continues to hire controllers and has 'retained employees who perform safety critical functions.' Despite those reassurances, Guzzetti, the former employee, an aviation official and the PASS union predicted that it won't take long for the terminations to ripple through an aviation system already strained by a shortage of controllers, aging equipment and a glut of air traffic. The fired employees include mechanics who maintain and repair the grounds and buildings where controllers work, aeronautical information specialists, office and data assistants, as well as those who ensure airlines follow certain FAA protocols, according to job categories of fired employees provided by PASS. The aviation industry official said employees from other parts of the FAA were cut as well, including people from its Air Traffic Organization's safety and technical training division, known as AJI. The industry official, granted anonymity to discuss their knowledge of the terminations, said this division reviews safety data reports that need additional scrutiny, such as episodes when a plane almost collides with something on a runway. These employees help 'identify risks in the system,' the official said. The same division is also studying controller fatigue. The official also said they have firsthand knowledge of cuts at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, which is instrumental in reviewing aircraft design standards — including issues like the crashworthiness of seats, airframes and other parts of planes. The industry official noted that some of those let go at the center would probably be involved in offering their expertise to Canadian authorities investigating a Delta Air Lines crash that happened Monday in Toronto, where a regional jet flipped over after landing on a snowy runway. All 80 passengers and crew survived. Another office where PASS said workers had been fired is a division called Flight Standards — field offices that house the technical experts at the state or local level who monitor whether airlines and other operators are following FAA rules and regulations. Guzzetti agreed that those firings in particular are cause for concern, saying those in charge of reviewing these certificates already carry a high workload, conducting demanding oversight of passenger planes. By reducing these ranks, these employees 'are going to have less bandwidth to conduct their more safety critical function,' he said. So far, concern in Congress has split mostly along party lines in reacting to the cuts. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), whose committee oversees aviation, echoed the Trump administration's reassurances by saying that those laid off represent less than 1 percent of the FAA's 45,000 employees. Cruz said he's 'confident the agency can continue to perform its job without a handful of junior hires.' But Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called Wednesday for the FAA to reverse its cuts, writing in a letter to Duffy that 'now is not the time to frantically discard FAA employees that work tirelessly to ensure the safety of every aircraft that takes to the skies.' And one Democrat says she cannot effectively judge how significant the dismissals are because the administration hasn't provided details about them. 'I've requested from the FAA a list of who was fired. ... I still don't know who all they were,' Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who chaired Commerce's aviation subcommittee in the last Congress, said Tuesday evening. 'They have not provided that to me yet.' In a subsequent letter to the FAA's acting administrator, Chris Rocheleau, Duckworth sought a slew of details about the firings, writing that, at minimum, 'we need to know why this sudden reduction was necessary' and 'what kind of analysis FAA conducted — if any — to ensure this would not adversely impact safety, increase flight delays or harm FAA operations.' And Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and a group of 12 other senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Thursday sent a letter to Duffy saying that the Trump administration risks 'undermining decades of safety improvements' by pushing buyouts across DOT, coupled with the probationary cuts for 'employees who have dedicated their careers to keeping the public safe.' 'Their expertise, experience, and commitment cannot be easily replaced,' the senators said. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Commerce's ranking member, said this is not a good time to cut the FAA workforce and that 'we need to make sure that we're not losing people or equipment that could be critical to the safety of our system.' Language from one recent termination email said the firing in question was performance-based, according to text reviewed by POLITICO. The letter offered no specifics but said the worker had not demonstrated that further employment would be in the 'public interest.' The email further added that the 'nature of your appointment does not provide you the right to appeal your termination under a negotiated or administrative grievance procedure, nor to appeal it to the Merit Systems Protection Board ... on its merits.' The notice came from an email domain called ' which is not a U.S. government address. A person familiar with the situation, who showed POLITICO the email language and was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, said the text appeared to be a template that was used for many fired workers at the agency. The former FAA employee who helped create and update maps said they had been classified as a probationary employee but had previously worked in the same role in the same department for three years as a contractor. In three weeks, the employee would have no longer been labeled probationary. The workload is now resting in the hands of nine workers out of the original 12, the former employee said. 'We were already understaffed as it was' with retirements from the previous years, the former employee said, adding that the FAA charting office should be operating with roughly 20 people. 'I would hope that Secretary Sean Duffy takes notice that there were critical support to air traffic control employees fired without notice — and that they're able to rectify that mistake.'
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aviation firings a ‘concern' amid increase in plane crashes
(NewsNation) — Despite all 80 people on board a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis being expected to survive, Monday's plane crash in Toronto marks yet another major incident in the aviation industry in recent weeks. Dave Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, told 'Morning in America' the rapid firings of air traffic control staff could have introduced risks into the system and led to an increase in plane crashes. 'The aircraft control system in the United States is safe,' Spero said. 'You never know why these sorts of things happen in these kinds of bunches, but our concern right now is … you can't just suddenly make big changes and [fire] a whole bunch of people and introduce risk into the system.' 'Upside down and burning': All passengers escape Delta plane crash The Trump administration has recently fired hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a fatal midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. In a social media post late Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fewer than 400 FAA employees were fired and that 'zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.' As for what caused Monday's crash, Spero said he believes the National Transportation Safety Board is the authority on these matters for a reason. 'They go in there and they pull the whole thing apart and look at every aspect of the crash and make sure that they go by evidence and come up with the outcome,' he said. 'You cannot tell what this is all about.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How many people Trump has fired from FAA as plane crashes rattle Americans
The Trump administration has fired several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees as Americans reel from a series of plane crashes in recent weeks. Probationary employees — that is, those who were hired less than a year ago — were fired via email on Friday, according to a statement from David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union. The firings came just days before a Delta Airlines flight crashed at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, flipping over onto its roof as it attempted to land. At least 18 people were taken to the hospital after the Monday afternoon crash, including two adults and one child with critical injuries. Astonishingly, everyone on board survived. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading an investigation. Hours after the Delta crash, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed some 400 employees had been fired, adding that none of them were air traffic controllers or 'critical safety personnel.' Duffy's statement on the firings came in response to a tweet from his predecessor, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, questioning why the administration would move to fire FAA employees. 'The flying public needs answers,' Buttigieg wrote on X. 'How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?' Duffy claimed Buttigieg 'failed' to address key issues within the FAA. 'Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system,' Duffy responded. 'In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world.' Meanwhile, Spero called the firings 'shameful,' noting the agency is already facing a heavy workload and too few staff. "These employees were devoted to their jobs and the safety critical mission of the FAA,' he said. 'This draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin." 'Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency's mission-critical needs, he added. '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.' Spero added it's possible even more employees will be axed: 'It is possible that others will be notified over the weekend or literally barred from entering FAA buildings on Tuesday, February 18.' The FAA continues to investigate the cause behind the deadly collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight above Washington, D.C. last month. All 67 people on board both aircraft died, marking the deadliest commercial airline crash since 2001. President Donald Trump also moved to fire all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee last month. The committee will technically continue to exist, the Associated Press reports, but it won't have any members to carry out its work of examining safety issues at airports across the country. The president also fired Transportation Security Administration head David Pekoske around the same time, according to the AP.
