The Trump administration has begun fire hundreds of federal aviation administration employees holding critical air traffic control infrastructure, CNN reports. The fires, which began on Friday late in the evening, come while Elon Musk’s Spacex has been tapped to help create a new air traffic control system.
It is not yet clear how many workers were fired, but the Union of Professional Aviation Security Specialists (Pass) says they hit probation workers, or new employment in a test period. The workers were not air traffic controllers, who are in short supply due to the shortcomings of staff who have continued for decades.
The workers took the electronic mail of the night late on Friday, telling them they would be fired, according to David Sparo, president of the Pass Union. Workers include people who were employed for the maintenance of FAA Radar, Landing and Navigational, according to an air traffic controller who spoke with the Associated Press about the state of anonymity.
Galen Munroe, Deputy Director of Public Affairs Affairs at the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA), told TechCrunch Ruening workers include aircraft certification specialists, aviation technical system specialists, engineers and architects, employees of the procedure procedure team flight, and more.
Spero noted that employees were fired “without cause and based on performance or behavior”. Emails did not come from a government address; They came from “one” EXEC Microsoft Sorting Email Address. “
Congress has demanded that the FAA handle a model of nearby absences and modernizes critical systems for years, and experts say the agency has failed to act on well -known issues.
In a statement, Nick Daniels, the President of the NATCA, said: “We will analyze the effect of these conclusions on aviation safety and the national airspace system. A sad day for those who chose to serve in aviation security and service Public, only their careers to cut. “
The news comes just weeks after a fateful January clash at Ronald National Airport Reagan Washington at DC, where a controller was dealing with helicopter trafficking and commercial airline at the compressed airport. Since then some other clashes have occurred.
Days after the Washington DC collapse in January, Musk wrote in X that Trump gave the approval of his Doge team (Government Efficiency Department) to “make rapid improvements in the air traffic control system”.
Neither Musk and Trump have shared what would be those security updates.
Musk’s Spacex team members are visiting the Virginia Air Traffic Control System Command Center on Monday to “take a first -hand look at the current system, learn what the air traffic controllers like and dislike the tools Their current and predict how we can make a new one, the best, modern and safest system, ”wrote Sean Duffy, Secretary of the Department of Transport, in a post on X.
This article was updated to include information and a statement from the NATCA.
