CNN’s Aviation Expert Warns Of Trump Gutting FAA — As Air Travel System is ‘Stressed to the Max’
Pete Muntean, CNN’s aviation correspondent, warned on Monday that the Trump administration is firing hundreds of FAA employees just as the country’s air travel system “is stressed to the max.”
“The latest development is now engineers working for Elon Musk will be visiting the FAA’s air traffic control command center on Monday. That, plus these firings are truly uncharted territory for the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees an air travel system that is stressed to the max right now,” Muntean began, adding:
Remember, the FAA’s air traffic control equipment is aging and the system that delivers mandatory pilot safety alerts failed just days after that crash that killed 67 people over Washington, D.C., hasn’t even been three weeks since that crash, and DOGE has had its eye on the FAA ever since.
Now, the concern is that when these federal workers return from the long weekend on Tuesday, they could be barred from FAA facilities. The workers impacted here are members of a union called PASS. That is the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists Union, part of the AFL-CIO. Union President Dave Sparrow tells me between 200 and 300 FAA workers started receiving firing notices from the Trump administration late on Friday. These are the workers who help maintain the critical infrastructure that keeps the air traffic control system operating, he says.
Not only were these workers fired without cause, but that this was hardly a surgical move by the Trump administration that is dangerous to public safety and especially unconscionable in the aftermath of the crashes that have been grabbing headlines over the last month. It’s important to note here that these are probationary employees, meaning they’ve been on the job for less than a year.
So the next generation of FAA employees at an agency that’s had a hard time keeping up with retirements and attrition.
“So far, the FAA has not returned my request for comment, but we do know this from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who announced the visit by Musk’s team. He posted on X that President Trump is ordering a new air traffic control system and called for help not just from private industry, but any high-tech American developer in overhauling the FAA,’ concluded Muntean.
The Associated Press’s Tara Copp added some details as well as to exactly who has been fired, “FAA staff fired over the weekend included personnel that worked radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, among others. Hundreds were fired, just weeks after a fatal mid-air collision in DC killed 67. One employee said they were harassed on Facebook by DOGE prior to being fired.”
President Donald Trump blamed DEI hiring practices for the deadly plane crash over the Potomac River in Washington, DC – despite the FAA having rigorous standards for air traffic controllers to remain on the job.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
