Flight Attendants Union Joins Congressional FAA Inquiry

Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) sent a letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford inquiring about evacuation data.

Juliette Fairley

Published: 5/15/2026, 2:35:06 PM EDT

Flight Attendants Union Joins Congressional FAA Inquiry — A sign marks the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center in Nashua, N.H., on Oct. 9, 2025. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

An association of 55,000 flight attendants is throwing its weight behind a push by two U.S. Senators who want information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about whether lower staffing levels are impacting plane evacuation timing.

The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) issued a statement in response to a letter that Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sent to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.

"We thank Senators Duckworth and Baldwin for their efforts to raise this with the FAA,” AFA president Sara Nelson told NTD in a statement. “Today, nothing stops airlines from assigning one Flight Attendant to cover two door exits on widebody aircraft."

Widebody aircraft, also known as long-haul flights, travel on international and transcontinental domestic routes.

The number of flight attendants assigned to them is a safety issue, according to Nelson.

“Previous accidents have shown that leaving exits unattended during an evacuation leads to chaos, results in unusable exits being opened, causes injury, and increases smoke and fumes into the cabin,” Nelson added. “Our union is calling on Congress and the FAA to require at least one Flight Attendant per door exit on widebody aircraft.”

The FAA did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

In their letter, Duckworth and Baldwin named popular carriers, such as American, Delta, and United Airlines.

"Without a certified Flight Attendant positioned at every dual-aisle floor-level exit, passengers could be left vulnerable at precisely the moment they must rely on skilled, decisive guidance and rapid action from highly trained and certified Flight Attendants," the senators state in the FAA letter that was published by CBS. "Furthermore, reduced staffing poses additional risk in the unfortunate event that a Flight Attendant is left incapacitated during a serious incident."

The senators also allege that the FAA is late in producing evacuation test results that Congress requires within one year of the May 16, 2024, passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act.

The deadline expired last year.

“Almost two years after enactment, the report is still not complete," the senators wrote.

This isn’t the first time that Duckworth has inquired about FAA evacuation practices.

In a 2025 letter, Duckworth requested FAA data on timing for passengers and crew to exit aircraft during each of three incidents that happened last year.

Those specific evacuations occurred on an American Airlines flight on July 26, 2025, and March 13, 2025, and on a Delta flight on April 21, 2025.

“Video showed passengers exiting with carry-on bags and, according to at least one passenger, the process took 10 to 15 minutes—the latter estimate exceeding FAA's 90 second evacuation standard by 10 times,” Duckworth said in the letter.