Hundreds of FAA personnel fired by Trump’s administration, says Union

The Trump administration has begun to shoot hundreds of employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to the Union of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass), weeks after a fatal collision of the airplane in the air in Washington DC.

Several hundred of the agency’s test workers, who have generally been in their positions for less than a year, received the news by email on Friday night, a statement from the Pass chief, said Alex Spero.

It is part of a cost reduction unit, conducted by Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency Department (Doge)This aims to drastically cut the federal workforce.

Spero described the “shameful” shots and said that “they will increase the workload and give new responsibilities in a workforce that is already stretched.”

The BBC has contacted the FAA and the Department of Transportation to comment.

According to Spero’s statement, impacted workers include systems specialists, security inspectors, maintenance mechanics and administrative staff, among others.

Criticizing the measure, Spero said that the FAA “is already challenged by the lack of personnel”, and that the decision to cut the staff was “excessive after three accidents of mortal aircraft in the last month”, including the Mortal shock at Ronald Reagan airport in Washington DC, in which they killed 67 people.

Jason King, who is among the dismissed, said he was worried about how the movement would affect the safety of aviation.

He told Wusa9, an affiliate of the US BBC CBS partner, to fire people directly involved with aerial security is “worrying for public safety in our national airspace.”

King, whose work in FAA involved directly addressing security concerns, said the cuts “threaten public trust and increases the probability of future accidents.”

“Aviation security should never be treated as a budget element that can be completely reduced,” he added.

On Monday, a Spacex team by Elon Musk visited FAA to suggest improvements in the United States air traffic control system, after the collision of the Washington DC plane in January.

Although the National Transport Security Board has not yet determined the cause of the collision, the personnel levels in air traffic control at the airport were below the normal levels on the night of the accident.

The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, said that the visit of the SPACEX team to the FAA would give a “first -hand look to the current system”, and would allow them to discover how they make “a new world -class air traffic control system system that will be the envy of the world. “

He added that he plans to visit the FAA Academy, which provides training for the organization’s workforce, at the end of this week, for more information about the education member’s education “and how we can ensure that only the best script of our airplanes “.

President Donald Trump caused controversy last month When he suggested that diversity programs supported by their predecessors had reduced hiring standards that could have affected the Washington DC plane accident.

The Trump administration has ordered government agencies to fire almost all its test employees, who have not yet earned job protection. It is a movement that could affect hundreds of thousands of people.

Among those who lost their work in Friday’s cuts were half of the so -called “disease detectives” of disease control centers, multiple health officials said to CBS.

The researchers, officially officers that serve in a two -year program in the organization’s epidemic intelligence service, often deployed on the front line of the main disease outbreaks.

Many scheme members have increased in the agency’s ranks.

President Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to allow him To fire the head of an independent ethics agency That protects federal employees from complainants.

Hampton Dellinger, head of the United States Special Advice Office, sued the Trump administration after being fired last month.

It is believed that it is the first case related to the series of executive actions of Trump to reach the highest court in the country.

Since he assumed the position, the president has reduced to more than a dozen general inspectors in several federal agencies.