As of now, we don’t know for sure all the names of those responsible for the tragic air disaster in D.C. but there is no question that DEI corroded the quality of air traffic controllers.
This is a good summary of how it started.
Historically, the pipeline into air traffic control has followed a few paths: military veterans, graduates of the “Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative” (AT-CTI) program, and the general public. Whichever route they came from, each candidate would be required to take and pass the eight-hour AT-SAT cognitive test to begin serious training…
In 2000, a three-member task force, including NBCFAE member Mamie Mallory, wrote “A Business Case and Strategic Plan to Address Under-Representation of Minorities, Women, and People with Targeted Disabilities,” recommending, per the lawsuit, a workplace cultural audit, diversity “hiring targets” for each year, and “allowing RNO- [Race and National Origin] and gender-conscious hiring”…
Central to this: the cognitive test posed a barrier for black candidates, so they recommended using a biographical test first to “maximiz[e] diversity,” eliminating the vast majority of candidates prior to any cognitive test…
Around this time, the FAA decided to pause the hiring of CTI graduates pending the implementation of the biographical assessment. Neither the schools that ran the CTI programs nor their students were informed of this when the decision was initially made. A number of students, including the class representative, passed the AT-SAT (in the case of the class representative, with a perfect score), not knowing they would never get to use it…
In 2014, the FAA rolled out the new biographical questionnaire in line with the Barrier Analysis recommendation, designed so that 90% or more of applicants would “fail.” The questionnaire was not monitored, and people could take it at home. Questions asked prospective air traffic controllers how many sports they played in high school, how long they’d been unemployed recently, whether they were more eager or considerate, and seventy-some other questions…
National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE) members were hard at work. In particular, one Shelton Snow, an FAA employee and then-president of the NBCFAE’s Washington Suburban chapter, provided NBCFAE members with “buzz words” in January 2014 that would automatically push their resumes to the tops of HR files. A 2013 NBCFAE meeting advised members to “please include [on resumes] if you are a NBCFAE Member. […] Can you see the strategy”, emphasizing they were “only concerned” with the employment of “African-Americans, women … and other minorities.”
In short, merit-based testing was short-circuited, the way that it was in many professions, by adding a layer of biographical materials over the top, and rigging the system to disqualify the normal candidates.
We’re now all living with the results.
These moves led to prolonged legal battles by qualified candidates who were rejected for not being ‘diverse’ enough.
Andrew Brigida, 35, scored 100 per cent in his training exam but alleged that he was denied a position in an air traffic control tower because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recruitment process favoured diverse candidates. He is part of a class action lawsuit filed against the federal agency.
Speaking after the Washington air disaster, in which 67 people were killed, Mr Brigida claimed that years of diversity hiring meant it was only a matter of time before an accident happened.
Plenty of these ticking time bombs are still there.
The FAA's DEI Traffic Controllers Were an Accident Waiting to Happen | Frontpage Mag