The terminated FAA employees were probationary workers hired or promoted within the past year like other workers let go in other federal agencies. USA Today reported the number in the FAA was about 400.

The FAA has about 50,000 employees and is the largest division of the Department of Transportation.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, which is part of AFL-CIO, said the “hastily made decision on Friday night did not focus on mission-critical needs and was harmful to employees.”

The decision was “especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month,” the union said, and “this draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin.”

The union added: “This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing. Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety.”

Several hundred employees were sent an email about the terminations from a Microsoft email address, not an official .gov email address.

“These are not nameless, faceless bureaucrats,” Liz Doherty, communications director for the union, said. “They are our family, friends and neighbors. They contribute to our communities. 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.”

The terminated FAA employees assist FAA technicians administratively and logistically, and also are environmental compliance workers, aeronautical information specialists, maintenance workers and mechanics, according to David Spero, national president of the union that represents about 11,000 FAA and Defense Department employees who support air traffic controllers.

Exempt were FAA technicians and aviation safety inspectors, along with air traffic controllers, a group represented by a different union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

“By exempting those people, the goal is to make sure that nothing that is directly impacting aviation safety has an adverse impact,” Spero told USA Today.

“But when you lose all these other people, these other support people, that creates a huge hole in all those support functions that we need to have to do our jobs on the front line. So without them, your folks are severely handicapped.”

After the Jan. 30 midair collision between an American Airlines commuter jet and an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, President Donald Trump claimed the FAA is enmeshed in diversity, equity and inclusion hiring initiatives. He didn’t provide evidence that DEI played a role in the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is not part of the FAA, is investigating the crash that killed 67 people, the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said members of Elon Musk’s SpaceX team are visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia on Monday.

The FAA has investigated and fined SpaceX, for alleged safety violations. The FAA has grounded launches after SpaceX mishaps.

In a post on X on Sunday, Duffy said Musk’s team members “will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.”

He noted FAA frequently gives tours of the command center to media and private companies.

Besides dismissing workers, the Trump administration has a deferred resignation program that includes pay for eight months and other benefits.

With the deadline last week to accept the buyout, roughly 3.3% of the federal workforce, or 75,000 employees, had taken the deal. The Trump administration had hoped 5% to 10% would accept it.