Air-traffic union analyzing safety impact of FAA firings
The air traffic control tower after the American Airlines crash at the Reagan National Airport on Feb. 3 in Arlington, Va. (Getty Images)
A union representing air safety personnel said it’s reviewing the fallout from a slew of firings late Friday that affected U.S. Federal Aviation Administration employees, just a few weeks after the worst U.S. civil aviation disaster in decades.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents air-traffic controllers, engineers, and other aviation safety professionals, said in a statement that it “is analyzing the effect of the reported federal employee terminations on aviation safety, the national airspace system and our members.”
Hundreds of FAA workers in their one-year probationary period began receiving messages about the firings after 7 p.m. New York time on Friday, according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that also represents federal employees at the aviation regulator.
NATCA Region X employees, which include engineers, aircraft certification specialists, staff support specialists and aviation technical system specialists, were among those affected, according to the union. NATCA said it hasn’t received any reports of air-traffic controllers being included in the terminations.
The firings come at a critical time for air safety, with a number of high-profile crashes already this year, including the midair collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet that killed 67 people.
At the same time, the U.S. Transportation Department has said it’s enlisting the help of billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to modernize the nation’s air-traffic control system – a massive undertaking that officials have been trying to tackle for years.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X over the weekend that members of Musk’s SpaceX team would be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia on Monday to get a first-hand look at the current system. Musk’s involvement has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, since the FAA regulates his rocket company.