Trump administration firing hundreds of FAA employees despite four deadly crashes in four weeks

Old_Joe

The following is excerpted from a current report in The Guardian:

The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day.

According to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) union, “several hundred” workers received termination notices on Friday.

The workers were all probationary employees, those employed for less than a year and lacking job protections, which makes them low-hanging fruit for the Trump administration’s streamlining efforts.

According to the US office of personnel management, there are about 200,000 probationary employees within the federal government.

The firings at the FAA do not include air traffic controllers but they may include engineers and technicians.

The Pass union, which represents more than 11,000 FAA and Department of Defense workers who install, inspect and maintain air traffic control systems, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But former FAA air traffic controller Dylan Sullivan claimed on social media that agency personnel who were terminated “maintain every piece of equipment that keeps flying safe, from the radars to the ILS, to ATC automation”. He also noted that “probationary” employees were necessarily new because “probationary” can apply to newly promoted staff.

Job cuts at the FAA are likely to raise concerns. The agency has struggled to recruit air traffic controllers in recent years. An increase in recruitment during the previous two administrations was hobbled by budget cuts that limited training and certification.

hank

Well, he’ll have to blame the Toronto crash on Canada. (Unless the Delta flight was unfortunate enough to have a transgender crew member).

Old_Joe

A couple of times fifty years ago I managed a walk-through in the "basement" of Oakland Center, the en-route ATC facility where I was stationed. Having had a background from the Coast Guard as an electronics tech I was fascinated by the immense amount and variety of the electronics which supported the ATC going on just a few feet overhead.

Much of that technology and equipment was then, and very likely still is, severely dated. Having spent my final twenty years of employment with the San Francisco Public Safety Radio Group, I was actually in a somewhat similar situation, as we also had a fair amount of obsolete and obsolescent equipment. With respect to SF, most of that old stuff was replaced with state-of-the-art equipment in my final years there.

You just don't hire techs off the street for that kind of equipment. None of the younger hires have ever seen a vacuum tube, and if you can't "talk" to a piece of equipment with your laptop they have absolutely no idea of where to start or what to do.

Training and on-the-job experience is essential. If the FAA terminates the younger crop of technicians they are going to be in a world of hurt trying to find replacements.

It's comforting to know that Trump and his minions undoubtedly have taken the time and trouble to understand all of this before firing all of the new people.

AndyJ

Yep, it is comforting to know it's all in such good hands.

Old_Joe

This report in The Guardian validates and reinforces what I stated above:

US aviation sector requests emergency funds after recent alarming crashes

Major aviation groups urge Congress in a joint letter to take action for more air traffic control and staffing

The US aviation sector on Wednesday called for “robust emergency funding” from Congress for air traffic control technology and staffing after a series of crashes that have raised alarm.

Airlines for America, the Aerospace Industries Association, International Air Transport Association and others, including major aviation unions, urged Congress in a joint letter to take action, noting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces serious technology needs and is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels.

“We must support air traffic controller workforce hiring and training, modernize and deploy state-of-the-art air traffic control facilities and equipment,” said the letter seen by Reuters from groups representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines Boeing, Airbus and others, adding they do not support “pursuing privatization of US air traffic control services and believe it would be a distraction from these needed investments and reforms”.

US Department of Transportation, FAA, and key House and Senate committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

A persistent shortage of controllers has delayed flights and, at many facilities, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks to cover shifts.

Earlier this month, the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said he is reconsidering rules that allowed air traffic control supervisors to reduce staffing at Washington’s Reagan National airport before a fatal army helicopter-plane collision that killed 67 people in January.

The FAA last year cut minimum flight requirements at congested New York City-area airports through October, citing air traffic controller staffing shortages.

In March, then president Joe Biden proposed spending $8bn over the next five years to replace or modernize more than 20 ageing air traffic control facilities and 377 critical radar systems.

A quarter of all FAA facilities are 50 years or older. A 2023 report noted air traffic control facilities with leaking roofs, broken heating and air conditioning systems, and old surveillance radar systems that must soon be replaced at a cost of billions of dollars.

The report said the FAA’s communications system has been outdated for years and the agency can no longer get spare parts for many systems.

An outage of a pilot alerting system in January 2023 led to the first nationwide US ground stop since 2001, disrupting more than 11,000 flights. The system suffered a brief outage earlier this month but without significant impacts.

(Textual emphasis added in above report)