Air safety concerns grow as Trump administration fires more FAA employees

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has announced that it's firing several hundred probationary employees across the federal government. 

The layoffs began with a series of late night emails on Friday and the White House says federal agencies now have until 8 p.m. Wednesday to fire all probationary workers — about 200,000 employees in total. 

That number includes hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees. The mass layoff comes just weeks after the deadly plane crash near Reagan National Airport stunned the country and several other incidents involving aircraft across the country. 

FAA layoffs

What we know:

The move that has caused concern among many as the impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told the Associated Press. 

Just days before the fatal Jan. 29 crash between the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet, President Donald Trump had fired all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, a panel mandated by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The committee is charged with examining safety issues at airlines and airports.

It's also known that at the time of the D.C. plane crash, one controller was handling both commercial airline and helicopter traffic. Now, there is growing concern that this latest round of firings could worsen flight delays and compromise air travel safety.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is defending the cuts, saying that at the Federal Aviation Administration, less than 400 of the approximately 45,000 staff members are probationary workers. 

Duffy also said that "zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go."

What is a probationary employee? 

Breaking It Down:

A probationary employee is someone who is still in their probationary period with the federal government, meaning they have recently been hired for their position and are essentially undergoing a "trial" period. 

During this time period, the employer will determine the employee’s fitness for the position and will determine if they qualify for regular employment. The length of a probationary period can vary but it is often one year. 

A person who has been a long-serving federal employee but moved to a new position is also often considered in a probationary position.

Probationary employees don’t have the same civil service protections as regular full-time federal employees. They generally do not have the right to appeal to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, which protects federal employees against "partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices."
 

What are federal employees saying? 

Local perspective:

FOX 5 spoke with one federal worker who is now out of a job — laid off by the Trump administration. She says she’s worried, both for her family and the safety of the flying public.

The worker, who only wanted to go by the name "Anne" tells FOX 5 her job dealt with air traffic safety, making sure that the maps air traffic controller use are correct. On Friday night, she received an email telling her she'd been terminated. 

Anne tells FOX 5 she had been contracted at the FAA for three years and was three weeks away from her one-year full-time anniversary. Now, she’s unemployed.

"We have only worked to serve and right now we no longer feel valued and accepted in this society. We’ve been villainized, and I want them to know that our livelihoods have been lost because of this," Anne said.

Anne says she’s not sharing her real name, because she’s scared of retribution for speaking out. In the termination email, FAA wrote that based upon her performance, she did not demonstrate that her further employment at FAA would be in the public interest. 

But Anne says her work was in the public interest and she’s worried not it could affect air safety.

"In my position, I worked directly with public safety, making sure that aeronautical maps that air traffic controllers use are up-to-date and accurate to make sure our public is safe when it comes to travel," she told FOX 5.

In his social media post, DOT Secretary Duffy said that no "critical safety personnel were let go" but Anne tells FOX 5 that her job was a critical safety position.

FOX 5 reached out to the FAA for comment Tuesday. They say they do not comment on specific cases.

Aviation staffing crisis worsens

Dig deeper:

The firings are hitting the FAA at a time when it is already a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. 

Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements.

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