The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration is acknowledging that the Trump administration fired agency probationary employees last week, but insists the roles were not critical to the safety of flights.
“In alignment with the Administration’s goal to make government more efficient, we regrettably had to let go some of our probationary employees last week,” acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau said in an agency-wide memo shared with CNN.
“Despite what you may be hearing, I want to assure you the agency has retained employees who perform safety critical functions,” Rocheleau said.
Though the head of the union that represents workers who were fired — which included those who help maintain critical air traffic control systems, flight and route maps, and procedures —contends the jobs were indeed critical to the safety of flights. “They were critical to the front-line safety people,” said David Spero, head of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists. “This destroys the aviation ecosystem.”
Late Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that less than 400 of the FAA’s 45,000 total workers were were let go, “and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago.”
Meanwhile, “special government employees” from Elon Musk’s SpaceX are now scrutinizing “challenges” at the FAA less than one week since the Trump administration fired hundreds of FAA employees, the agency tells CNN.
In a new agencywide memo shared with CNN, Rocheleau said the team will “solve long-standing challenges” while they “learn more about aviation safety from us.”
“We are asking for their help to engineer solutions while we keep the airspace open and safe,” Rocheleau wrote, saying the team already visited the FAA command center in Virginia and a key approach control facility that is responsible for the airspace around Washington, DC.
The acknowledgement from the FAA chief comes on the 3-week mark since the midair collision of an American Airlines regional flight and Army Black helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, DC, killed 67 people.
This post has been updated with reporting on DOGE’s visit to the FAA facilities.
