The first wave of White House-ordered firings at the Federal Aviation Administration included employees who play important roles in the safety of air travel — despite the Trump administration’s assurances that no “critical” staff had been axed.

Donald Trump has made good on a promise to slash hordes of workers from the Federal Aviation Administration, despite four deadly air crashes during his short second tenure as president, according to CNN.

A raft of termination emails were reportedly fired off on Friday, with the numbers of probationary employees facing dismissal in the “hundreds,” according to trade union center AFL-CIO.

Hundreds of workers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have been laid off despite rising concerns about understaffing, as the Trump administration seeks to rein in federal spending.

David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement that several hundred probationary employees were notified Friday evening by messages from an "exec order" Microsoft email address, not an official government email address. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists is the union that represents the employees. 

The Federal Aviation Administration fired fewer than 400 employees out of its workforce of 45,000, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Monday, as questions rise around air traffic safety amid a spate of recent plane accidents.

Duffy posted the number of layoffs in a social media post message on X, formerly known as Twitter, responding to a post by his Democratic predecessor Pete Buttigieg, who has been critical of the Trump administration's Department of Transportation.

Staffing shortages at air traffic control facilities have a negative impact on public safety and have made conditions more dangerous for years, two air traffic controllers told Newsweek in the aftermath of the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in decades.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it was placing Southwest Airlines under a heightened safety review after a string of recent near-miss safety incidents involving the low-cost carrier.

In a statement, the agency said it was increasing oversight of Southwest "to ensure it is complying with federal safety regulations."

“Safety will drive the timeline,” the agency said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation after two planes from major commercial airlines appeared to nearly collide mid-air in an unnerving dash camera video taken by police in Syracuse, New York, this week. Although experts say the flights were not actually on a collision course, based on preliminary evidence, they were for a time flying in very close proximity — just 725 feet apart at their nearest point.