Air Traffic Control and the DEI Debate By Dan McLaughlin
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/air-traffic-control-and-the-dei-debate/
After last night’s air disaster culminated a series of near-misses over the past four years, American air travel remains astonishingly safe, and the likelihood is that a full investigation will find that last night’s crash of an Army Blackhawk helicopter into a commercial airliner was (1) a total freak accident, (2) the result of a mechanical problem with the helicopter, and/or (3) human error by the helicopter pilot, perhaps compounded by poor air-traffic control. Efforts to blame this on Donald Trump, whose transportation secretary Sean Duffy only took office yesterday morning, say more about the people pointing fingers than about the actual causes of the tragedy.
All that being said, it’s worth noting here as the inevitable hurdy-gurdy cranks into gear that Trump has actually moved to fix a problem with how we hire air-traffic controllers, in order to reorient it toward hiring the best people in order to make air-traffic control safer. The Biden administration was sued last year over this:
From 1989 to 2013, the Collegiate Training Initiative program was a pipeline to a career in air traffic control. The program aimed to ensure future air traffic controllers had the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out the job. More than ten years ago, the Obama Administration scrapped 1000 qualified candidates. The administration’s justification was that the pool of applicants was not diverse enough, so they would be purged from consideration. Instead of hiring candidates with the most competency, individuals were elevated for hiring consideration based on their race…I, along with Mountain States Legal Foundation, am litigating a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 900 prospective air traffic controllers who studied, took the pre-employment exam, and passed the test with flying colors but were dismissed because of their skin color. Our lawsuit seeks justice for all air traffic control candidates who chose this career, dedicated their lives and education to it, and were summarily denied a job for no reason other than the color of their skin. In a system with only 14,000 air traffic controllers, purging a thousand of the next generation’s best and brightest was irresponsible and unsustainable.
Trump’s January 22 executive order aimed to end the discriminatory hiring practices that triggered the lawsuit:
President Donald J. Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum terminating a Biden Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hiring policy that prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency:
This Presidential Memorandum orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.
It also requires the FAA Administrator to review the past performance and performance standards of all FAA employees in critical safety positions and make clear that any individual who fails to demonstrate adequate capability is replaced by someone who will ensure Americans’ flight safety and efficiency. . . .
Almost unbelievably, as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative, the Biden FAA specifically recruited and hired individuals with “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis over other individuals who sought to work for the FAA.
President Trump is immediately terminating this illegal and dangerous program and requiring that all FAA hiring be based solely on ensuring the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence.
Good luck arguing in the immediate aftermath of a fatal air crash that hiring for excellence in air-traffic control is a bad idea.
Comments are closed.
