[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Pilots who pass the training, background and psychological tests are deputized as federal flight deck officers with jurisdiction in the cockpit of their aircraft.

Whew! THAT is a relief!!

Pilots who do NOT "pass the background and psychological tests" darn well shouldn't be driving fully loaded airliners God-only-knows-where.

If the pilot does NOT have "jurisdiction in the cockpit of their aircraft," who the heck DOES?

[supercat]

Pilots who do NOT "pass the background and psychological tests" darn well shouldn't be driving fully loaded airliners God-only-knows-where.

The concern--probably warranted--is that the psychological tests could be run by people who want as few pilots as possible to pass.

I would expect that someone who was giving psychological tests and wanted to fail as many people as possible could probably find some reason to disqualify just about anybody.

In most circumstances, psych evals are done by people who prefer to have candidates pass. While an employer would hope to reject people who would be unsuitable for their position, an employer wants to find qualified employees. Thus, it's unlikely that a psych eval will be particularly biased against a prospective pilot.

By contrast, since the TSA is run by people who want to arm as few pilots as possible (preferably none), it seems likely that their psych evaluators will have a strong bias against all prospective applicants.