Davids Condemns President Trump’s Mass Firing of FAA Employees Weeks After Fatal Plane Collision
Today, Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS-03), a member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s (T&I) Aviation Subcommittee, issued the following statement after President Trump signed an executive order firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees — just weeks after the fatal midair collision of AA5342, which departed from Wichita, Kansas.
“Just weeks after a tragic midair collision involving a flight from Wichita, President Trump’s decision to fire hundreds of FAA employees undermines aviation safety when we should be strengthening it,” said Davids. “Air traffic controllers are already stretched thin, and outdated technology is putting lives at risk. Instead of addressing these urgent challenges, as my colleagues and I did in a bipartisan effort last year, the president is making them worse. Kansans, and all Americans, deserve a safe, reliable aviation system — not politically driven chaos that endangers passengers and aviation workers alike.”
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union — which represents 11,000 aviation safety workers — called the firings "shameful" and said they "will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin.”
Last week, Davids urged U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to take immediately implement key aviation safety reforms included in the recently passed FAA Reauthorization, which Congress passed last year. That includes hiring more air traffic controllers and updating aging air traffic control technology and systems, among other key safety provisions.
Following the collision, Davids and her Kansas colleagues expressed their steadfast solidarity with the families and communities affected by the tragedy. The entire Kansas congressional delegation also released a joint statement in response to the devastating collision. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently investigating the incident, and based on its findings, Davids and her colleagues on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee will take the necessary legislative measures to prevent this type of tragedy does from happening again.
During a T&I hearing last year, Davids pressed former FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, who served under President Biden, on the slow pace of modernizing critical landing systems used by air traffic controllers. She highlighted that in Kansas, 81 percent of these systems are functionally obsolete, and at the FAA’s current rate of replacement, it would take over a century to replace them. Davids emphasized the urgent need for faster upgrades to ensure the safety of Kansans.