Posted on 01/30/2025 10:59:12 AM PST by MtnClimber
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was once a paragon of precision, demanding the highest levels of skill and competence from those responsible for guiding thousands of aircraft daily through America’s airspace. Air traffic controllers (ATCs) were selected through rigorous training programs, ensuring that only the best and brightest sat at the helm of our nation’s skies. However, beginning in the Obama era and accelerating under Biden, a seismic shift occurred: meritocracy was abandoned in favor of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates.
The consequences of this shift are now coming home to roost. A decade of race-conscious hiring practices, prioritizing identity over expertise, has introduced a growing safety crisis in aviation. Near-miss incidents have surged, major airports have become the site of harrowing close calls, and controllers lacking the rigorous background once demanded are increasingly struggling under pressure. What began as a social experiment has now turned into a public safety hazard, and there is no indication that the turbulence will subside anytime soon.
The Fall of Meritocracy in Air Traffic Control
For decades, the FAA utilized the Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) program, an elite pipeline producing highly trained candidates with extensive coursework and aptitude testing. The selection process was rigorous, with applicants required to pass the Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) exam—a test scientifically designed to measure an individual’s ability to excel in high-pressure, precision-demanding environments.
In 2014, however, the FAA upended this system. The AT-SAT was sidelined, and a biographical questionnaire replaced it. The goal was explicit: to increase demographic representation at the expense of skill. Over 3,000 highly qualified CTI graduates, many of whom had already demonstrated superior aptitude, were summarily dismissed in favor of candidates who better aligned with racial and gender quotas. It was an affront to meritocracy, and in a job where a momentary lapse could mean catastrophe, the implications were dire.
DEI Policies and the Rise in Near-Misses
Since these changes, reports of runway incursions, aborted takeoffs, and near-midair collisions have risen at an alarming rate. The year 2024 saw a record-breaking 1,100 runway near-miss incidents, many attributed to controller errors. A few of the most harrowing examples include:
- October 2024: A Delta Air Lines Airbus A350 collided with an Endeavor Air CRJ-900 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, resulting in millions in damages and a full-scale NTSB investigation.
- September 2024: An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 was forced to abort takeoff in Nashville to avoid colliding with a Southwest 737 that was mistakenly cleared to cross the active runway.
- December 2024: A Delta jet at LAX nearly struck a private aircraft due to a controller’s miscommunication, narrowly avoiding a tragic disaster.
These incidents are not just statistical outliers. They represent a troubling trend: a growing cohort of underqualified controllers, fast-tracked into roles they are ill-equipped to handle, is increasingly making costly, dangerous errors.
Legal Challenges and the Battle Against Discrimination in Reverse
The FAA’s discriminatory hiring policies have not gone unchallenged. The lawsuit Brigida v. U.S. Department of Transportation revealed that thousands of top-performing candidates were rejected under the DEI-fueled hiring shift. Even some minority applicants, like American Indian CTI graduate Matthew Douglas-Cook, found themselves arbitrarily excluded due to the biographical questionnaire’s opaque, race-preferential scoring system. Justice Clarence Thomas himself has long warned of the dangers of race-based government policies, stating unequivocally that they “demean us all.”
Yet despite legal challenges, the FAA has doubled down. The Biden administration’s 2021 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Strategic Plan has only deepened the crisis, introducing more relaxed hiring standards, mandatory implicit bias training, and recruitment efforts that prioritize demographic metrics over core competencies.
The Inevitable Tragedy?
The FAA’s commitment to DEI ideology is a high-stakes game of Russian roulette with American air safety. While woke bureaucrats may see equity-driven hiring as a noble pursuit, reality tells a different story. Air traffic control is not a diversity seminar. It is a high-stakes, unforgiving environment where split-second decisions mean the difference between safe landings and mass casualties....SNIP
Who would want a DEI hire for their surgeon, pilot or air traffic controller?
.
FINALLY, a post which scratches the surface of what’s led to a serious increase in ‘near misses’ and runway collisions the past few years.
Deaths were inevitable.
That ol “tombstone” system at work. /s
And yeah, like DJT caused this with 8+ days of time in the chair. /s
The number of near-collisions of aircraft in the skies of the U.S have more than doubled in recent years. Incompetence of air traffic controllers HAS to be a major component in this dangerous trend.
There is no doubt in my mind, as a licensed private pilot, the standards demanded of air traffic controllers has been seriously LOWERED in recent years.
And it's not about gender or race- it's about excellence and competency
The entire concept of DEI is fundamentally antithetical to excellence and competence.
In the special operations community among Air Force Combat Controllers it was well know that those FAA staffers hiring federal air traffic controllers tried to minimize hiring of Air Force Combat Controllers (who were largely white and all make. And that in spite of the fact that they all successfully completed air traffic control training as part of their military training. By the very nature of their Special Operations selection, training and experience the Combat Controllers have demonstrated ability to handle very stressful conditions and serve.
That’s the way it has been in recent years but I hope that with the elimination of DEI this will change.
I had a friend that spent his final 10+ yrs in the Army as an ATC. All successful and came with a highly rewarding career as such.
He decided to retire out and become a civilian ATC. He applied all over the country to no avail. Was it because he was not part of the DEI clan? Who knows. He came to the belief it was because of not being part of local clicks...nepotism and cronyism etc. One will never know.
After a few yrs of trying to further his cherished love, he ended it all. Being one of the 22 veteran’s suicides that fateful days a few yrs back.
Were there more domestic airline crashes in the first quarter of this century or in the last quarter of the previous century?
Has airline travel become safer or less safe over the past 50 years?
I am trying to figure out why the Traffic Controller didn’t give the Helicopter instructions until only 30 seconds before impact. I’m sure there was an obvious risk displayed for at least a couple minutes before... Water Cooler? Coffee Machine?
Agree
Democrats cannot face the fact that they are the party of idiots. That is why they worship DEI. But forcing the hiring of someone who cannot meet traditionally high standards,
doesn’t make them smarter or more capable.
If y’all think that an organization is “Too white”
ask yourself why? What is wrong with a system where
black kids can only be highly competent in athletics?
Or Law?(many lawyers are idiots).
Democrat run socio-economic systems fails the kids,
especially the black ones.
Non-Democrat run socio-economic systems can crank out
kids of all races that do pretty well.
How is it a Japanese owned non-union car plant in middle America kick a Detroit union car plant in the butt?( profit wise)
Wages are pretty similar.
Look at the racial make-up of the workforce and what socio-economic systems they were raised in.
That is your answer.
Mayor Pete’s DEI policies share the blame.
(DEI) mandates
Owned by Joe Biden & Co.
FIND THE FAA INFO ABOUT RECRUITING UNDER BUTTIGEIG.
IT IS COMPLETELY AIMED at DEI-—MERIT NOWHERE.
SCARIEST STANDARDS I HAVE EVER READ.
SHARE???? NOT EVEN CLOSE
ENTIRELY ON HIM.
I wonder if the collision was a rear end impact?
President Trump has just ordered an assessment of damage done to aviation by the Biden administration’s DEI policies
He also orders the FAA to immediately elevate competence over “diversity” in hiring practices
4 months ago I saw a DEI Southwest gate worker escort a person without a valid boarding pass all the way to the plane.
10 min later she came back and told her she was on the wrong plane.
I still don’t know how this woman ever passed even basic airline security protocol.
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