Donald Trump fires hundreds of FAA employees weeks after midair Washington DC plane crash

Unperturbed by a series of plane crashes in the United States, President Donald Trump has resumed firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend. The firings have come at a critical time when the US is witnessing a number of high-profile plane crashes. Just weeks before, an American Airlines passenger collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter in Washington DC, killing all onboard.

Days before the Washington DC crash, Donald Trump had already dismissed all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which oversees airline and airport safety. Earlier in the day, a Delta Airlines plane crashed at Toronto International Airport, ending belly-up on the tarmac, injuring 18 passengers.

The layoffs at FAA some probationary officers receiving late-night emails on Friday notifying them they had been fired. The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told AP.

The FAA employees were fired “without cause nor based on performance or conduct” and the termination emails came from “an exec order Microsoft email address” – not a government email address.

A union representing air safety personnel said it’s reviewing the fallout from a slew of firings late Friday that affected US Federal Aviation Administration employees, just a few weeks after the worst US 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.”

NATCA President Nick Daniels said there was no evidence that the firings were linked to poor performances of the FAA employees. “It’s a sad day for those who chose to serve in aviation safety and public service, only to have their careers cut short. There is no evidence that these firings were about poor performance.”

(With agency inputs)