Trump administration sends email to air traffic controllers after D.C. plane crash: Quit your jobs, Trump’s antics led to another plane crash Friday night. Here’s what was sent to controllers in the email
The Trump administration sent an email to air traffic controllers urging them to quit their jobs and go on a mass “buyout” just 24 hours after the D.C. plane crash.
They were among hundreds of thousands of federal employees who sent the email at 8.30 p.m. Thursday to take up an extraordinary offer made by Trump’s aides to civil servants to quit their jobs en masse.
The email was sent almost exactly 24 hours after a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet while landing at Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people. Initial reports suggested that just one air traffic controller was doing the work of two controllers at the time.
“We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as possible,” the email, sent by the Office of Personnel Management, said, The New York Times reports.
“The path to greater American prosperity is to encourage people to move from low-productivity jobs in the public sector to high-productivity jobs in the private sector.”
The message was formatted as a “Frequently Asked Question.” It suggested that by taking a buyout, employees could immediately find another job or vacation to their “dream destination” while remaining on a government payroll. The advice runs counter to years-old rules that prevent federal employees from choosing other sources of income…
The late Thursday night email follows an earlier email that offered federal workers other incentives to leave the security of their jobs, such as eight months of pay if they did so by February 6.
On Friday, speaking about his plan for federal employees during a press conference, Trump said: “It is our dream that everybody, virtually, works in the private sector, not the public sector.”
After Wednesday’s plane crash, Trump blamed the tragedy on a number of figures, including previous administrations, claiming: “I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first.”
In an apparent effort to incite culture wars and further discredit the FAA, Trump falsely claimed that the agency’s website listed individuals with “hearing, vision, limb loss, partial paralysis, total paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, mental retardation and dwarfism” as “qualified” applicants for air controller positions, CBS News reports.
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told the Times that it is “not yet clear” how the resignation program will be implemented.
Daniels said union activists are “concerned about the consequences of losing experienced aviation safety personnel during a universally recognized air traffic controller staffing shortage.”
The Trump administration did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment at the time of publication.
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