Hundreds of employees have been fired from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as part of a cost-cutting initiative from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

According to their representative union, many of these employees directly supported safety inspectors and airport operations.

Concerns over these layoffs have risen due to recent plane crashes, including the Toronto and Arizona crashes. The Trump Administration says no one at the FAA in a ‘critical safety position’ has been fired. FAA Administrator Sean Duffy has also said that no air traffic controllers or critical safety personnel have been cut.

400 workers were laid off on Friday, Feb. 14, following the DOGE initiative. 130 of these workers were represented by the Aviation Workers Union, including aviation safety assistants, maintenance mechanics, and nautical information specialists. These types of workers are tasked with aircraft safety inspections, repairing air traffic control facilities, and updating digital maps that pilots use in flight, such as the maps that failed in last month’s fatal midair collision.

One question is how are positions defined as ‘critical safety positions,’ a question circling both the public and FAA workers. Former FAA technician Philip Mann said in an interview that defining someone’s position as ‘critical to safety’ comes down to whether that person is authorized to perform a certified inspection of equipment. Those who were fired were supporting roles for inspectors, assisting in the process as a whole.

“It’s a stretch, but that is usually where they can draw the line to say, ‘If you can certify stuff, then you have a critical safety job. And if you don’t certify stuff, you don’t have a safety critical job,'” said Mann in an interview.

David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Specialists Association, commented on the severity of these firings. “All of these people are part of the safety net. The more of them that are not there, the more difficult it becomes to do the actual safety overnight.”

Cuts to nautical aviation specialists mean updating digital maps used by pilots will take longer to complete and receive, potentially affecting commercial and private air travel. No matter the severity of the positions, this large cut has wavered American confidence in air travel safety, leaving many uncertain of future cuts from the DOGE.