Posted on 02/01/2025 3:58:00 AM PST by dennisw
The Federal Aviation Administration turned away 1,000 air traffic controller applicants due to its DEI policies despite a staff shortage, according to a lawsuit.
Complaints over the FAA's hiring policies have resurfaced after American Airlines flight 5342 collided in midair with a helicopter over Washington DC, killing 67.
In a suit filed in 2015, lead plaintiff Andrew Brigida, 35, claims the agency's obsession with DEI hiring was a catalyst in ensuring an accident was likely to happen - and reiterated this in an interview with The Telegraph on Thursday.
The FAA dropped a skills-based system for hiring air traffic controllers and instead based it on a 'biographical assessment' under the Obama administration.
Brigida, who is white, alleged that he was discriminated against based purely on his race and was the reason his application was knocked back.
The Arizona state graduate was turned down for a job with the agency even though he had passed his training exam with full marks, the suit claims.
The FAA has struggled in recent years with staffing issues following pandemic-era layoffs and has yet to fully recover.
The lawsuit only compounds mounting criticism on the agency, especially after President Trump blamed DEI hiring policies on the cause of Wednesday's crash.
Brigida, who now works for the agency as a program manager, told The Telegraph that years of diversity hiring meant it was just a matter of time before a major accident happened.
He said: 'You want to hire the best and the brightest for this kind of job because it is a very stressful job and it can take a toll on you, age you prematurely. You want to make sure that the people that are doing it are the best.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This lawsuit has been going on since 2015>>>>>
“In Trump’s first term, lawyers for the Federal Transportation Department argued to throw out Brigida’s case.”
‘DEI cost me a job in aviation – a crash was inevitable’
Aspiring air traffic controller speaks out following deadly collision between American Airlines plane and helicopter in Washington
31 January 2025 8:10am GM
An aspiring air traffic controller who claimed he was denied a job because of diversity targets said the aviation agency’s obsession with inclusion made an accident likely to happen.
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.
“You want to hire the best and the brightest for this kind of job because it is a very stressful job and it can take a toll on you, age you prematurely,” he told The Telegraph. “You want to make sure that the people that are doing it are the best.”
If we think it’s bad now imagine what it would be like in four years if Harris, thugs and goons had won - giving them more time to destroy the country. Planes falling out of the sky would only be a small part of the horror.
The US Reps and Senators are flying in and out of DC all the time. Air travel is a sacred cow to them and their staffers.
So hopefully this gets DEI obliterated in the aviation field.
In its 0bama-era archives, the FAA bloviates about:
<><>”On-the-spot special appointment authority”
<><>to hire individuals via a “non-competitive hiring method,”
<><>which specified hiring air traffic controllers “with severe physical disabilities,”
<><>”and those with psychiatric disabilities, and intellectual disabilities.”
The FAA DEI initiative was last updated by Obama accomplice, Joe Biden, according to Fox News.
FTA——Brigida was on the “preferred candidate” list until the FAA changed the rules under Obama. A skills-based test was downgraded with an Obama-dictated DEI-centric “biographical questionnaire”....... to attract more diverse applicants.
When Mr Brigida retried to become an air traffic controller under the new tests, he failed
the biographical questionnaire because he “didn’t fit Obama’s preferred ethnic profile”.
This is just another society-destroying use of the trusty (for die-hard communists) Cloward-Piven strategy. Which strategy, once you see it used, you can’t un-see.
I have long held the belief that HR is an evil and unnecessary function. It exists not for the benefit of the employee, or potential employee, but for the enabling the employer to avoid litigation by creating policies. I know a lot of HR people, and most are liberal and dumb as a rock. Apologies to any current/former HR people on FR.
btt
Here’s the core of the FAA’s problem: they had been mandated to “increase diversity”, but there AREN’T ENOUGH diversity candidates who meet even minimum standards, so rather than hiring the white people that applied, they just didn’t hire.
And now they don’t have enough competent people, and it will take at least a year to hire and train people even with Trump in charge.
Whoever came up with the DEI idea for high stress jobs like air traffic controllers hates our country. If we looked could this be traced back to George Soros or the Chinese? Or some middle eastern hellhole terror group? Obama might have implemented this crap but I doubt he came up with it.
Good point. Government thugs have a way of taking care of themselves FIRST.
This we know. Lame brain Obama scrapped 1000 qualified FAA candidates.
<><>stoopnagle Obama’s justification?
<><>the pool of applicants was not “diverse enough,”
<><>so the color-coded moron purged them from consideration.
<><>no more hiring candidates with the “most competency” by Dei-blinded Obama,
<><>key FAA jobs were sanctified by St Obama for hiring based solely on sub-par race.
Obama obediently might have implemented this FAA diversity
crap but I doubt he came up with it....could be traced back to:
<><>George Soros
<><>the Chinese?
<><>some mideast hellhole terror group?
Possible.....very possible.
Democrat administrations regularly advance policy through the courts with consent decrees and settlements. They find an aggrieved party who brings a complaint and then engage in talks that mandate actions that have never been court-tested, but fully support democrat objectives. Hopefully Trump adopts this against the demons.
“The US Reps and Senators are flying in and out of DC all the time. Air travel is a sacred cow to them and their staffers.”
And those lazy-ass entitled pols are partially to blame for the congestion at Reagan. It used to be that most would use Dulles, but they’re special. They demanded that flights be available between their home airports and Reagan because it’s so much closer to the Capitol.
(Reported on War Room or Newsmax — basically the only ones I watch.)
“I know a lot of HR people, and most are liberal and dumb as a rock. Apologies to any current/former HR people on FR.”
I’m former HR (about 10 years), and I agree with you. Going to work with these people was like walking into the Twilight Zone every day.
I considered it my mission field, as I was able to ACTUALLY help employees behind the scenes. My major accomplishment was to secretly let some know they COULD get out of the union, and how to do it.
But the other ees in the department ... OY! One of ‘em would give greeting cards by Maya Angelou. I told her to NEVER do that on MY birthday. The ridiculous events and training they coordinated were dreadful.
They used the Anita Hill situation when training on sexual harassment, implying that it was an actual case and that Hill won. ?!?!? I showed them that that wasn’t true.
Anyhow, I was happy to be a thorn in their flesh for a while, and happier when I retired.
“FAA lawsuit claims agency discriminated against air traffic controller applicants on the basis of race
“The FAA allegedly added a question rewarding applicants for doing poorly on test, to get more African American air traffic controller applicants”
“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is being sued in a class action lawsuit alleging it turned away nearly 1,000 air traffic controller applicants, solely based on their race.”
You nailed HR to a T.
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