A casualty of Donald Trump and Elon Musk‘s DOGE-led purge of the Federal Aviation Administration are a group of lawyers who work to keep drunk pilots out of the air.
A source close to the matter told Rolling Stone that multiple legal offices within the FAA were hit by the ‘bloodbath’ cuts. Among those were attorneys responsible for helping to prevent pilots with drug and alcohol problems from getting in the cockpit.
Many kinds of lawyers were ‘abruptly’ let go, according to the outlet, causing numerous staffers and officials to voice their concerns that the cuts were without cause.
‘It’s such a pointless bloodbath,’ a source of the outlet said. ‘Every time we try to figure out why this or that was done, the answers you get from the Trump and Musk guys usually amount to: Because we can.’
‘We’ve never seen anything like this,’ they added.
The already overworked legal team was hit with an estimated firing upward of ten percent of their staffers.
A Transportation Department spokesperson told the outlet that, ‘The FAA continues to hire and onboard air traffic controllers and safety professionals, including mechanics and others who support them.
‘The agency has retained employees who perform safety-critical functions.’
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team purged the Federal Aviation Administration, it’s revealed that lawyers who work to keep drunk pilots out of the air were among those cuts
‘It’s such a pointless bloodbath,’ a source of the outlet said. ‘Every time we try to figure out why this or that was done, the answers you get from the Trump and Musk guys usually amount to: Because we can’
The Trump administration has axed hundreds of workers at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Musk and Trump have argued that the mass exodus of employees has not affected those that are considered critical to safety.
‘It’s a bunch of b*****,’ one current worker told Rolling Stone. ‘The definition of “critical” can be f**** around with as much as they like. We were already underfunded and understaffed agency.’
Although it has been maintained that no air-traffic controllers were among the firings, the employee claimed that some had in-fact been terminated.
‘There’s a lot of worry people are going to get fired, because the DOGE people don’t know what we do before they fire people,’ the current employee said. ‘How are you going to make efficiency changes when you don’t even know the basics?’
‘Who knows who they’ll be willing to get rid of next,’ they added.
David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, said the first emails firing FAA staffers were sent to probationary workers late last week.
Since taking office in January, Trump and his sidekick Musk have rapidly shrunk the federal workforce to save money.
A Transportation Department spokesperson told the outlet that, ‘The FAA continues to hire and onboard air traffic controllers and safety professionals, including mechanics and others who support them. The agency has retained employees who perform safety-critical functions’
‘We are troubled and disappointed by the administration’s decision to fire FAA probationary employees PASS represents without cause nor based on performance or conduct,’ Spero said.
‘Several hundred employees have been impacted with messages being sent from an ‘exec order’ Microsoft email address, not an official .gov email address.’
One FAA worker alleged he had been targeted because of comments he made about Musk’s companies.
‘Before I was fired, the official DOGE Facebook page started harassing me on my personal Facebook account after I criticized Tesla and Twitter,’ Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote on LinkedIn, describing how he was fired after midnight on Saturday.
‘Less than a week later, I was fired, despite my position allegedly being exempted due to national security.’
The dismissals come at a critical time for the FAA, which already faced a shortage of controllers.
For years, officials have warned that overworked and understaffed air traffic control systems were an accident waiting to happen.
Last month, 67 people died in a crash between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet.
Last month, 67 people died in a crash between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet
Surveillance footage taken from inside the airport also captured the moment the two collided in midair
The causes are still under investigation. But early reports revealed staffing levels were ‘not normal,’ and that a single controller was handling helicopter traffic as well as airline traffic at the airport.
Days later a medical jet crashed in Philadelphia killing all six people on board.
Then, a small plane carrying 10 crashed over Alaska, again killing everybody on board.
Spero highlighted the human cost of firing so many people at a stroke.
‘These are not nameless, faceless bureaucrats. They are our family, friends and neighbors. They contribute to our communities,’ he said.
‘Many military veterans are among them. It is shameful to toss aside dedicated public servants who have chosen to work on behalf of their fellow Americans.’
However, earlier this week Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Senator Chuck Schumer’s claims ‘irresponsible’ after he made the suggestion that Trump was to blame for a plane crash in Canada.
On Monday night, a Delta plane carrying 76 passengers and four crew crashed at Toronto Pearson Airport.
On Monday night, a Delta plane carrying 76 passengers and four crew crashed at Toronto Pearson Airport
Miraculously, everybody on board survived, despite the plane setting alight and flipping upside down.
Schumer said that Trump’s recent cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration as part of his government purge contributed to the accident, sparking a swift rebuke from Leavitt.
‘It’s incredibly irresponsible for Chuck Schumer to say such a thing when the investigation is still underway,’ she told Fox.
‘This crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace with Canadian air-traffic controllers overseeing it.’
Schumer had argued that it didn’t matter where the plane landed, given it took off from the United States.
‘To those asking whether it matters that the plane’s destination was in Canada: The flight took off from Minneapolis,’ he said. ‘The FAA was still responsible for inspecting the aviation equipment, and Trump just let go of FAA safety specialists… We keep seeing these incidents day after day.
‘Trump’s doing massive layoffs at the FAA – including safety specialists – and making our skies less and less safe. Democrats are fighting to protect the flying public.’
Leavitt argued against the point and claimed that ‘no air-traffic controllers have been let go by Secretary Duffy or this new administration.’
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt effortlessly eviscerated Senator Chuck Schumer for his ‘irresponsible’ suggestion that President Donald Trump was to blame for a plane crash in Canada
The previous administrator, Mike Whitaker, resigned when Trump became president as Musk demanded his resignation. Musk had previously called for Whitaker’s departure after he had proposed more than $600,000 in fines for SpaceX
She added that following Trump’s DEI reversal executive order, the administration was focusing on ‘merit and skill-based hiring.’
Duffy said at an event in Los Angeles that the fired employees were probationary and thus ‘not the highest-skilled of the FAA’ and the department ‘exempted people who work in critical safety positions.’
He also said anyone who argues the cuts will impact air travel is playing a ‘political game.’
After the crash on Monday night, 18 passengers were treated for various injuries.
The youngest victim, reportedly a four-year-old, was taken to The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Two adults were airlifted to trauma centers nearby – one went to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center and the other to St. Michael’s Hospital.
Musk, however, has offered his SpaceX services to ‘help make air travel safer.’ Some of the SpaceX engineers were already on board as senior advisors to the FAA’s acting administrator.
The previous administrator, Mike Whitaker, resigned when Trump became president as Musk demanded his resignation.
Musk had previously called for Whitaker’s departure after he had proposed more than $600,000 in fines for SpaceX, TIME reported.
