The Yambo administration is telling Americans not to worry about all the FAA firings, because they didn’t fire anyone too important. Musk: “To the best of our knowledge, no one affecting safety has been fired.” Karoline Leavitt: No employees “who perform safety-critical functions were terminated,” calling it “fake news” to report otherwise. Via Rolling Stone:

Former and current FAA officials, however, say the purge could certainly affect air safety going forward. According to the Associated Press, the mass firings included “personnel hired for FAA radar, landing, and navigational aid maintenance.”

Rolling Stone spoke with a fired FAA employee who was among a handful of employees working on an obstacle impact team at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The team evaluates many tens of thousands of potential new hazards — such as new buildings, windmills, and especially cranes — to inform flight procedures each year.

The obstacle impact team was already understaffed before it was gutted. “There are currently four people remaining over there to do the work of 15 people,” they say, adding: “The danger to the national airspace can’t be understated. This is a very real threat to the American flying public.”

While the mass firings targeted “probationary” employees, that doesn’t mean the cuts only affected employees with limited experience. The fired FAA employee, a veteran, previously performed the same role for years for a government contractor; after the contract ended, the FAA hired most of the team back directly. The probationary status, however, made the obstacle impact team ripe targets for Musk’s hit squad at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.