Donald Trump abruptly fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Coast Guard while also eliminating the entirety of a critical aviation security advisory committee. This move has raised serious concerns about air travel safety and national security.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske, who was originally appointed by Trump during his first administration, was in the middle of his second five-year term. No reason was given for his firing.
Trump also fired Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the armed forces’ first female service chief. She’d earned praise for addressing long-standing issues of sexual assault in the Coast Guard.
Alarmingly, Trump eliminated all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, a group mandated by Congress after the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing. The committee included representatives from airlines, unions, and victims’ families and was instrumental in examining and improving safety issues at airlines and airports.
Members of the committee received a memo saying their membership was eliminated as part of a “commitment to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security.”
The Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2014 made the ASAC a permanent body, recognizing its importance in ensuring aviation security. Now, the group technically exists, but it has no members to carry out its work of examining safety issues at airlines and airports.
“I naively thought, ‘Oh, they’re not going to do anything in the new administration to put security at risk — aviation security at risk.’ But I’m not so sure,” said Stephanie Bernstein in a quote given to the press; her husband was killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing, and she served on the committee.
These abrupt changes in leadership and the dismantling of safety and advisory bodies raise significant questions about the future of aviation and maritime safety and security under the Trump administration.
