You’re missing the (my) point.
It’s perfectly plausible that SkyWest Airlines or Alaska Airlines ‘dei’ dictated advancement for a rather unqualified pilot and this assignment came back to bite someone on the backside when a manager who obviously had some ‘pull’ compelled the diversion.
As the article cites, each airline has its own requirements. Someone at AA probably was reviewing the flight assignments for SA and caught the error (it was a Skywest aircraft/aircrew flying for AA).
If it was just the pilot, they’d never have gotten in the air if he/she/it was responsible because it’s 100% certain the flight crew knew their destination.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) In Aviation
Diversity is about bringing together different people with their differences – whatever those differences may be. The FAA has employee associations and special emphasis programs that work to support individuals from diverse backgrounds, inclusive of:
Gender
Sexual orientation
Race
Ethnicity
Nationality
Disability
Veteran status
These groups of people (and others) have faced adversity and are often underrepresented in many industries and fields. Many federal laws are in place to ensure that every individual has the same rights, and California has even expanded the list of marginalized people on this document.
https://calaero.edu/aviation/diversity-equity-inclusion-dei-aviation/
Fed wokeness impacts everything. My interpretation of dei impacts upon ATC and flight crew shortages - in part due to the jab mandates - is that we will soon see an aviation incident with lives lost and experience the same sort of stonewalling in every other investigation where they shut down the truth.