The White House and DOGE are turning their eyes to the skies this week. After targeting the Federal Department of Education and USAID, President Trump and Elon Musk now want to make cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“I’m nervous about it, I think we need to keep our citizens safe,” said Krissy Riggs as she headed to the security lines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
She is among the many people who travel and admits there can be stress with ticketing, long lines, making or missing your flights.
Many people who fly have never really worried much about the people controlling the skies until now.
Riggs is among them. “I want our skies to be safe and our country to be safe.”
The Trump Administration is trying to fire staff within certain sectors of the FAA, including some air traffic controllers.
Another traveler at SEA, Sue Norris, immediately denounced the idea. “That’s putting everybody at risk that flies.”
CNN reports several hundred FAA workers could be barred from FAA facilities, like one of the main FAA regional offices located in Auburn as soon as tomorrow.
Colleen Mondor is a licensed pilot with aviation degrees. She also has written about aviation for decades.
She wants people to know that aviation safety and certification specialists, as well as technical operations workers at the FAA are also critical, not just Air Traffic Controllers. “The tech ops folks are the ones that make the radar work, they’re the ones that make the airport lighting at airports work …even if they kept every (Air Traffic) controller employed…if you decimate all the other aspects of the FAA it won’t matter ATC still won’t function.”
At SEA, some passengers, like Sue Norris, said the proposed cuts are too deep. “You don’t cut absolute necessary agencies!”
The move to fire key FAA personnel comes less than three weeks after a midair collision near Washington D.C. that killed 67 people and put the spotlight on air traffic issues.
At the time of the collision, the tower wasn’t fully staffed, with one traffic controller doing the jobs of two people.
Mondor says the firings show a complete lack of understanding about how the Aviation system works.
She insists that the expertise many FAA personnel have are vital to safeguarding air travel. “Until the average American wraps their head around you need all these people then problems like this are going to happen. The outcome is the airports will not function.”
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