Delta jet lands upside-down after Trump admin fires workers 'hired for FAA radar, landing'
An emergency responder works around an aircraft on a runway, after a plane crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, February 17, 2025. REUTERS/Cole Burston REUTERS/Cole Burston
On the same day President Donald Trump's administration fired several hundred Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers, a Delta Airlines regional jet landed upside-down, injuring 15 people.
The New York Times reported that all 80 passengers and crew members on board the jet at the time of the botched landing were accounted for and evacuated. The jet — which was operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air — had been traveling from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Toronto, Ontario. Several of those on board had injuries deemed "critical but non-life threatening."
Monday's incident came just on the heels of the Trump administration and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE (which is not yet an official federal agency authorized by statute) announcing mass layoffs of probationary-level government employees. These employees, who typically have less protections than their more tenured coworkers, number roughly 200,000 throughout all federal agencies.
READ MORE: 'Stupid beyond belief': Trump and Musk blasted as DOGE fires 'hundreds' of FAA employees
The Associated Press (AP) reported that among the approximately 300 FAA workers fired Monday, some included "personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance," according to an unnamed air traffic controller. AP journalist Tara Copp tweeted that one of the fired FAA workers she spoke with worked with the Pentagon "on a classified, urgent need for an upgraded radar system for Hawaii to detect cruise missile threats." She added that "their phone was wiped" and that "institutional knowledge and records [were] erased."
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash), who is the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, told Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram: Now is not the time to fire technicians who fix and operate more than 74,000 safety-critical pieces of equipment like radars, navigational aids and communications technology."
"The FAA is already short 800 technicians and these firings inject unnecessary risk into the airspace —in aftermath of four deadly crashes in the last month," Cantwell said. "The FAA’s safety workforce needs to be a priority for this Administration."
As Cantwell mentioned, the Toronto incident happened just weeks after a deadly mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter that killed 67 people near the Washington D.C. National Airport. And in early February, a LearJet crashed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, killing seven and injuring dozens of others.
READ MORE: Trump admin orders immediate mass firing of some federal workers — 200,000 possibly at risk
Click here to read the AP's full report.
