Fired FAA Employee SPEAKS OUT! - 'The Public Has Reason To Be Concerned About Air Safety!'
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Are recent spikes in aviation incidents linked to FAA workforce changes?
So Donald Trump is president of the United States and planes are quite frankly falling out of the sky. There have been 15 aviation incidents in the six weeks of 2025, the first six weeks, including four major plane crashes that resulted in 85 deaths. On January 29th, there was a mid-air crash over Washington, D.C. that claimed 67 lives. On January 31st of this year, A medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia. And then there was this one on February 6th where a Bering air flight crashed in Alaska. On February 10th, a Learjet collided with a park jet in Scottsdale, Arizona. And just yesterday, just this week, a Delta flight crash landed in Toronto, Canada. Flames coming from beneath the plane.
It flipped over on its side and really turned upside down.
People had to scramble off of the plane.
And the big question is, it is perhaps...
Is it perhaps this stuff that is related to Donald Trump and the mass firing campaign at the FAA? Is it perhaps because hundreds of workers are focused, who usually focus on radar, landing and navigational maintenance, that they have been let go? I want to have a conversation and I wanted that conversation with someone who knows their stuff. And that is Charlie Spitzer Stetlander. I'm so happy that you're here. Charlie, you were recently an FAA employee and until you were fired by Doge. I'm so glad that you're here. I want to hear your story. But first of all, does the American public have the right to be concerned about getting on an airplane right now with all of these firings and what's going on with the FAA?
In my opinion, 100% yes.
Why do you say that?
I say that because, well, first on, great to be with you today. Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to my story and get the word out there in the public interest. This is very important. To answer your specific question, I believe the flying public does have reason to be concerned about the safety of the national airspace right now. As we've seen, there have been massive, indiscriminate, arbitrary firings of air traffic control support staff. There seems to be a lot of mistakes that really call into question the competency of how this is actually taking place. I'm seeing tactics that I've seen used in business to do reductions in force in business being used We lost in the air, the airspace.
Charlie, we lost your signal for just a little bit. Can you repeat what you said?
Sure. So I was saying that I've seen tactics that I've seen in the private sector, most notably when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, being used at the federal government level. And when you're dealing with an entity, the federal government, whose primary purpose is to protect the American public, I'm not entirely sure that using slash and burn tactics to reduce workforce and cut costs that we see in the private sector that Elon Musk did at Twitter when he purchased it necessarily promotes the best safety for the flying American public.
Yeah. So, Charlie, let's talk about your story now, because you said that you were fired. You said it was by Doge. Right. Tell us your story, because you said you weren't even sure that you were fired, that you were I believe it's that you were trying to go to work or do your job. And then all of a sudden you kept getting locked out of either your email or certain places that you needed to get to in order to do your job.
Yeah. So let me back up just a little bit.
Why does Charlie believe the flying public has reason to be concerned about air safety?
So I was recruited over to the FAA National Defense Program in March of 2024. I was currently working as the legislative director for the deputy mayor in the District of Columbia. And the FAA recruited me to join the National Airspace Defense Program here at the FAA, tasked with carrying out some very significant and important and critical national security functions and making sure that the domestic airspace is secure, not only from domestic threats, but also from foreign adversaries. The National Defense Program of the FAA was started post 9-11. Prior to 9-11, I think our defense posture here in America was that the attacks would come from outside our borders and come in at us.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Are recent spikes in aviation incidents linked to FAA workforce changes?
0:13–4:33
2
Why does Charlie believe the flying public has reason to be concerned about air safety?
4:33–9:49
3
What was Charlie’s role at the FAA and why was he recruited?
9:49–21:04
4
How did Charlie discover he was locked out and allegedly fired late at night?
21:04–36:50
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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