Featured photo of Delta Airlines HQ by Budphoto1. CC BY 2.0.
Long before he ran for president, Donald Trump’s trademark phrase was “You’re fired!” Now, as president for the second time, he’s refreshingly been firing everyone who stands in the way of transforming federal government from “diversity, equity, and inclusion” based hiring to a merit-based system. Not only in the hiring, but DEI also serves as protection against firing inept workers. Even so, DEI has still been a darling of big corporations, enforced at the highest levels. Not long after reaffirming its full commitment to DEI ideology, one of Delta Airlines’ planes crash-landed, flipped upside down, and burst into flames at Toronto Airport. Thankfully everyone miraculously survived the crash.
This, however, is just one of the many dangerous and deadly situations commercial air travelers have found themselves in this year. With this incredible uptick in commercial plane problems, it’s high time to review who’s running our air traffic safety systems. Trump has already fired several hundred employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but not any air traffic controllers or their supervisors. But the several recent crashes, notably the American Airlines collision in D.C. with an Army Blackhawk helicopter (resulting in no survivors) suggest that replacing DEI with a merit-based system for air traffic control is badly needed.
During the Obama Administration, the use of a merit and skills-based exam, the AT-SAT, was deemphasized in hiring air traffic controllers. Instead, a biographical test based on DEI became more important in hiring decisions in this occupation on which the lives of thousands depend daily.
A lawsuit has been pending for many years in federal court challenging how air traffic control hiring practices have disadvantaged qualified candidates from the leading training program, called the Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative. This lawsuit, captioned Brigida v. US Dept of Transportation, was certified as a class action in February 2022 in federal court in DC.
It’s high time we take swift and serious action to ensure the best quality in air traffic control. The lives of millions of Americans hang in the balance.
