this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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Summary

The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred FAA employees via emails, including workers in radar, landing, and navigational aid roles, as well as personnel in a classified early warning radar program for Hawaii.

The terminations occur just weeks after a fatal mid-air collision at Reagan Washington National Airport amid ongoing staffing shortages and safety concerns in air traffic control.

Some employees allege the firings were politically motivated and executed without following standard government protocols.

all 40 comments
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[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 84 points 5 days ago (4 children)
[–] distantsounds@lemmy.world 59 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Cort@lemmy.world 31 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Don't forget the Delta flight that did a barrel roll today

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

That would have been Canadian ATC.

[–] mysteryname101@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I thought it was the 51st state. /s.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

That's funny. God's one. Not /s

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Likely the weather though we had some pretty blustery winds in ontario

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Yeah, I just meant not the US ATC.

[–] don@lemm.ee 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I have a ss of it directly above this post in /all.

ffs

[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 21 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

"ss" = screenshot, I get it now.

I took me a second. At first I could Nazi what the letters represented.

Screen shot, social security, secret service, subway sandwhich, it really could have been anything

There’s a reason piloting is one of the top 5 most dangerous jobs in the US. It isn’t because of the airlines, it’s because of small aircraft like bush pilots, light aircraft and helicopters. Without trying to be dismissive of the tragedy of a crash and the loss of life, small aircraft accidents and incidents are not unusual.

One of my family members owned a plane back in the ‘70s. For fun, I looked it up and traced the history. It was crashed three times, repaired twice, the third and final crash being a loss of life and aircraft thanks to a drunken owner taking it out on the final flight.

It’s surprising how dangerous aviation still is despite the immensely safe air travel we’ve all gotten used to.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Starting to wonder if I should have even agreed to travelling for work.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 26 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

several hundred FAA employees

Back around 1980, you had the Reagan-PATCO union showdown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)

On August 5, following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, the Reagan administration fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order,[13][14] and banned them from federal service for life.

These layoffs are something like a few percent the size of that. And those were people in one role, which is gonna be a bottleneck, harder to deal with, whereas this is gonna be spread out.

[–] jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works 36 points 5 days ago (2 children)

ATC numbers took 10+ years to recover after Reagan. Not only that but more flights and longer hours means even with the former number before the trump cuts, the ATCs were struggling. While each individual cut is small, ATCs are more strained than ever, and there is also the risk of organized strikes or more mass firings. Also, it takes a while to train ATCs, so it's not something that can be immediately rectified without rehiring the fired workers and reinstating trainees

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 days ago

Just wanted to point out a minor detail. Thank God these morons were not dumb enough to fire actual ATCs. These firings were for non-ATC positions at the FAA.

Still really important positions like people who do shit like maintain critical systems (who needs radar? lol) but at least they haven't fucked with ATC numbers yet. Someone must have told President Musk that would cause the collapse of an already fragile system

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 21 points 5 days ago (2 children)

And Reagan got rewarded for that by naming an airport after him

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

This country is the worst. Buildings and monuments and other sites are named after traitors and those who try to run the government into the ground because we learn absolutely nothing.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Did he? Never heard of it.

I know Dulles and John Glenn and National and JFK. Can't say I recall a "Reagan Airport".

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

It's the one in DC that the airliner hit the helicopter.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago

This is really great news. I'm traveling domestically next month and internationally in May. Time to update that will, I guess.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 18 points 5 days ago

Putin: And if it ends up killing Americans, even better!

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I wonder when the redcap dumbasses will wake up and realize he's trying to kill them as well?

[–] earphone843@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No, it's all still Biden's fault

[–] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

Or worse, they're still blaming Hilary

[–] easydnesto@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago

That’ll show them.

/s