FAA Dumps Donald Trump, Calls For 'Non-Controversial' Navigation Codes
Why one government agency is cutting ties with the presidential candidate.
— -- The Federal Aviation Administration announced today it is dropping and renaming three Donald Trump related navigation codes above Palm Beach International Airport.
“In general, the FAA chooses names that are non-controversial and relate to the area in which the fixes are located,” the FAA told ABC News in a statement.
An air traffic controller who was a fan of Donald Trump’s reality show named the points along the airport’s main departure routes in 2010.
The routes were named UFIRD (comes out “you’re fired” in controller speak), DONLD and TRMMP, according to a 2010 article published in The Sun Sentinel.
According to the article, one pilot said that some are refusing to fly these departures.
“We actually have had reports of people refusing to fly these departures because they are so offended by the fact that Trump has been memorialized,” the pilot told the newspaper.
The FAA says the updates could take several months to take effect.
It is not an uncommon practice to name navigation points after celebrities. There is one in Cleveland, for example, named after LeBron James.
