This is how President Obama changed the way that air-traffic controllers are selected. I’m citing the Wall St. Journal and the Chicago Tribune as proof, so liberals can’t credibly say that this is “fake news” or “misinformation.”

When Obama was president, he abandoned the old system of hiring qualified air-traffic controllers who had a college degree in air-traffic control and/or were military veterans with aviation experience, because too many of these people were white males. Obama then replaced the old system with a new system that tried to achieve racial diversity by asking applicants how many different sports they had played when they were in high school.

When Obama was president, the Federal Aviation Administration stopped giving preferential treatment to air-traffic controller applicants who had passed classes from the 36 FAA-approved college aviation programs across the U.S., because too many of the people who passed these classes were white males.

At the same time, the FAA also stopped giving preference to applicants who were military veterans with aviation experience.

Under the new system, applicants were asked how many different high school sports they had participated in.

For years, aspiring air-traffic controllers in the U.S. have enrolled in schools selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to offer special courses that could smooth the way for a job at the agency.

But at the end of December, the FAA abruptly ended that special status for the 36 participating colleges and universities…

… some critics suspect it is intended partly to increase the share of minorities and women among controllers, who are now 83% male and white…

Some school officials say their controller enrollment already has fallen off because of the FAA change.

The FAA’s new stance “just doesn’t make sense,” said Douglas Williams, aviation-program director at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Md… “They’re not getting the best-qualified applicants this way,” he said.

Students who have studied for the controller degrees fear they wasted time and money. Navy veteran Oscar Vega recently completed the two-year air-traffic program at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. He said he passed the FAA controller aptitude test last year, so he was shocked when, in February, he failed the biographical assessment.

“They say you can take it again,” said the 28-year-old. “But it’s not a test you can study for. And we don’t know why we failed because we don’t get any feedback.”

The schools estimate that more than 3,000 graduates have been removed from the FAA’s hiring pool because of the new policy.

More than half of the latest batch of air-traffic controller job offers nationwide went to people with no aviation experience…

The hiring breakdown marks a major shift in FAA recruitment strategy, which is now geared toward… attracting more minorities and women to the nation’s largely white and male controller work force

For almost the last 25 years, until the off-the-street hiring process was implemented in February, the FAA recruited controllers heavily from among military veterans possessing aviation experience and from the 36 FAA-approved college aviation programs across the U.S.

Exhausted, stressed-out air traffic controllers a risk to flight safety

by Diana HembreeDecember 6, 2023

Greetings, MindSite News Readers. In today’s Daily, air traffic controllers say they are so overworked and mentally exhausted that our aviation safety system is at risk. Four Black professionals in Los Angeles have created organizations that promote community and help people heal. And research finds that mental health apps, while helpful, fail to protect user data and privacy.

Air traffic controllers are exhausted, overworked and making dangerous mistakes

Air traffic controllers say they’re overworked, demoralized, and mentally exhausted to the point where one told the New York Times, “a deadly crash is inevitable.” They’re concerned that if nothing soon changes, cracks will become holes in a critical component of the nation’s aviation safety system. A primary issue is staffing shortages which are so severe that many controllers are on mandatory six-day, 10-hour work shifts, some which end just eight hours before they are to return to work. In the past two years, air traffic controllers and others have sent hundreds of complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), putting unsuitable work conditions and concerns about controllers’ mental health on record. The Times investigative report is based on more than 70 interviews with current and former air traffic controllers, pilots, and federal officials, as well as federal safety reports and FAA records that the paper obtained.

The air safety problem linked to the burnout that controllers are facing cannot be overstated. A database of aviation safety issues shows one controller in Southern California who directed a plane to fly too low and wrote, “If I can make a small mistake like that, I can make a bigger one.” The error was attributed to exhaustion and working continuous overtime. And the controllers’ work is only growing. In the fiscal year that ended September 30, air traffic grew by 4 percent, as controller errors classified as “significant” rose more than 65 percent.

Overwork is also causing mental and physical health issues that some controllers are afraid to report, for fear of not receiving the medical clearances they need to stay on the job. To cope, some say they’ve turned to dangerous levels of caffeine, alcohol, and sleeping pills. Others simply retire, exacerbating the staffing shortage issue. The FAA estimates that roughly 10 percent of all controllers, or 1,400 people, will retire this year, and the National Airspace System Safety Review Team says the agency’s current hiring plan can’t replace them quickly enough. A net increase of fewer than 200 controllers is expected by 2032.

“We have recently had a heart attack, multiple panic attacks (including my own), people losing their medicals due to depression and some that just outright quit the FAA because it has gotten so bad,” one controller wrote in a confidential safety report. “Who knows how many other stress-induced physical and mental issues are happening that we don’t even know about yet. This place is breaking people. We need help. I’ll say it again, SOS!!” In support, Jennifer Homendy, the chairperson of the National Transportation Safety Board, told the Senate last month that the mental and physical pressure put upon controllers puts the nation’s air safety at risk. “We are putting the psychological stress of the entire aviation safety system on the shoulders of our ATC work force,” she said, “and this is unacceptable..

READ all at: https://mindsitenews.org/newsletter/exhausted-stressed-out-air-traffic-controllers-a-risk-to-flight-safety/

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