The FAA’s Troubles Are More Serious Than You Know

President Donald Trump blamed diversity programs for the crash of a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington 's Reagan National Airport .

FAA employees including air-traffic controllers, safety inspectors, and mechanical engineers received an email advising them to leave their job under a buyout program announced just two days before.

More than 1,300 FAA employees replied to the email, out of a workforce of about 45,000 .

FAA officials told me that many jobs with critical safety functions are indeed being sacrificed.

At least 12 percent of the country’s aeronautical-information specialists have been fired or are exiting the agency as part of the government-wide buyout program.

The FAA oversees an industry that supports $1.8 trillion in economic activity and about 4 percent of U.S. GDP.

A former senior executive told me that recent events have sunk the agency into “complete chaos”.

The FAA awarded Verizon a 15-year , $2.4 billion contract to modernize the network in 2023 .

But that award is now in jeopardy, as agency officials race to determine whether aspects of the work can be allocated to SpaceX instead.

The highly sensitive work is being conducted by a diminished legal staff; more than a dozen agency attorneys have signed up for early retirement.