The Federal Aviation Authority is grappling with a staffing crisis that’s leaving America’s airspace in disarray, a leaked secret document has revealed.
More than 1,200 employees, including seasoned leaders and technical experts, have walked out of the agency as a result of a deferred-resignation program initiated by Elon Musk and the Trump administration to curb labor costs, internal memos reviewed by the Wall Street Journal found. Retirements have also contributed to the number of employees departing the agency.
The exodus, which affects approximately 3 percent of the FAA’s 46,000-strong workforce, fueled concern about the loss of critical expertise and institutional knowledge just before the busy summer season.
It came after the “fork in the road” email which Elon Musk’s DOGE sent to hundreds of thousands of federal employees, offering them deferred resignation packages to reduce the size of the government payroll—before Musk himself quit and further reduced the government payroll himself by taking Stephen Miller’s wife with him as an aide.
The walk-outs aren’t constrained to one area, including divisions that oversee everything from legal matters to space launches.
While the FAA assures that frontline safety roles like air-traffic controllers remain unaffected, doubt has been cast on the agency’s ability to fulfill its regulatory duties.
“Employees are departing the agency in mass quantities across all skill levels,” an internal presentation for senior management stated, according to the Journal.
It also comes with the agency already under intense scrutiny due to a number of crises, including the mid-air collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet on Jan. 29 that killed 67 as well as potentially deadly radar dips that have affected planes flying into Newark Liberty Airport.
The latest FAA bombshell comes after hundreds of rookie FAA staff were fired—then swiftly rehired earlier this year. More recent departures include workers who oversee air traffic, airlines, and accident investigations, the Journal reported.
“We are refreshing an organization that is built for the future,” an FAA spokesperson told the Journal.
Veteran air traffic controller Jonathan Stewart recently outlined in an on-the-record interview the dangers of staffing shortages at the agency.
“I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
He noted that staffing shortfalls restrict the number of planes that can be guided in for landing.
Stewart filed an internal safety report after a close call on May 4, in which two planes were flying toward each other at the same altitude. Stewart was able to help pilots change course but expressed concern about future equipment failures.
“The situation is, has been, and continues to be unsafe,” Stewart wrote. “The amount of stress we are under is insurmountable.”
Newark isn’t the only airport where air traffic controllers have experienced a momentary loss of contact with planes. In Denver last Monday, transmitters stopped functioning for up to six minutes, prompting an FAA investigation.
FAA and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have pledged a complete overhaul of the agency.
