WASHINGTON — The administration under President Donald Trump has stated that no employees holding crucial safety positions were dismissed from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during recent workforce reductions. However, some positions eliminated were directly linked to supporting safety inspectors and airport operations, according to information from their union and former employees.
Starting Friday, approximately 400 personnel were let go, but the full details regarding who was affected remain unclear. The union that represents about 130 of the departing staff indicated these roles included aviation safety assistants, maintenance mechanics, and nautical information specialists.
These workers played essential roles in assisting aircraft safety inspectors, maintaining air traffic control facilities, and ensuring the accuracy of digital maps used by pilots, which is especially important following last month’s tragic midair incident.
FAA Administrator Sean Duffy assured the public over the weekend that no air traffic controllers or essential safety personnel had been let go. Halee Dobbins, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, reiterated on Wednesday that the layoffs targeted probationary employees who had been with the FAA for less than two years, constituting less than 1% of its workforce of over 45,000 employees.
Philip Mann, a former FAA-certified technician, explained that the classification of someone’s role as “critical to safety” often hinges on whether that individual is authorized to perform certified inspections on the work being done. Although those who were terminated did not conduct these inspections, their work was crucial in supporting that function.
Mann commented, “It’s a stretch, but that is usually where they draw a line to define if you have a safety critical job.” He further noted that the loss of these personnel could pose long-term safety risks by severely limiting the workload that needs to be completed.
Public confidence in air travel appears to have diminished, particularly in light of an incident in January where a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. A recent poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only 64% of U.S. adults now consider plane travel “very safe” or “somewhat safe,” a decrease from 71% the previous year. Moreover, the percentage of adults perceiving air travel as unsafe has risen from 12% in 2024 to about 20%.
In the recent layoffs, 18 air traffic control facilities lost maintenance mechanics who are responsible for addressing electronic issues and making repairs, as explained by David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Specialists Association, a union representing around 130 of the dispersed FAA employees.
Consequently, work on vital infrastructure, like radar systems, could be adversely impacted because certified technicians will now need to take on the responsibilities previously managed by the mechanics they lost. Spero emphasized that every one of these employees contributes to the overall safety framework, and losing them complicates the execution of effective oversight.
The impacted nautical aviation specialists will result in delayed updates to digital flight maps used by pilots. The union’s president pointed out that aviation safety assistants, akin to paralegals, handle paperwork allowing inspectors to focus solely on aircraft evaluations. With 26 assistants terminated, each typically supports about ten inspectors, indicating that increases in paperwork will likely reduce the efficiency of aircraft inspections.
Spero added that this added pressure creates additional burdens on inspectors, and Mann agreed that it strains the already short-staffed air traffic control system. Currently, there are about three air traffic controllers for every technician, making the situation even more precarious.
Concerns about a compromised air traffic control environment have persisted for years, and it was notably highlighted when a temporary power outage at Chicago O’Hare International Airport caused disruptions due to the absence of a technician qualified to reset the radar.
The union is still assessing the complete effects of the cuts, noting that some positions were part of FAA initiatives in collaboration with other agencies, including a highly classified radar system designed to detect incoming threats.
In the early weeks of his second term, Trump has initiated significant changes throughout his administration, which have raised eyebrows among some federal leaders. His administration has moved aggressively to dismiss numerous career employees and freeze large amounts of federal funding to address what he describes as systemic government inefficiencies.
While some agencies have struggled to manage the abrupt nature of these layoffs, Spero expressed hope that the FAA would reconsider the dismissed employees, suggesting that a more thoughtful and systematic approach would allow the FAA to evaluate the implications for aviation safety thoroughly.
Union claims some of the 400 FAA job reductions impacted aviation safety support.
