Trump fires hundreds of air traffic support staff as SpaceX visits FAA command center

The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, reports CNN. The firings, which began late Friday night, come as Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been tapped to help create a new air traffic control system.

It’s not yet clear how many workers were fired, but the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union says they hit probationary workers, or new hires on a trial period. The workers were not air traffic controllers, who are in short supply due to staffing shortages that have gone on for decades. 

The workers received late-night emails Friday telling them they’d been fired, according to David Spero, president of the PASS union. The workers include people who were hired for FAA radar, landing, and navigational aid maintenance, according to an air traffic controller who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. 

Galen Munroe, deputy director of public affairs at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), told TechCrunch the fired workers include aircraft certification specialists, aviation technical system specialists, engineers and architects, flight procedures team employees, and more.

Spero noted the employees were fired “without cause nor based on performance or conduct.” The emails didn’t come from a government email address; they came from “an ‘exec order Microsoft email address.’”

For years, Congress has demanded the FAA tackle a pattern of near misses and modernize critical systems, and experts say the agency has failed to act on known issues. 

In a statement, Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, said: “We will analyze the effect of these terminations on aviation safety, and the national airspace system. It’s a sad day for those who chose to serve in aviation safety and public service, only to have their careers cut short.”

The news comes just weeks after a fatal midair collision in January at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., where one controller was handling both helicopter and commercial airline traffic at the busy airport. Several other crashes have occurred since. 

Days after the Washington, D.C., crash in January, Musk wrote on X that Trump gave his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team approval to “make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.” 

Neither Musk nor Trump has shared what those safety upgrades would be. 

Members of Musk’s SpaceX team are visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia on Monday to “get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system,” wrote Sean Duffy, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, in a post on X.

This article was updated to include information and a statement from NATCA.