Re: Trump Was Right: FAA Turned Away Qualified Controllers Over Race

On 01 Feb 2025, John Smyth <[email protected]> posted some
news:[email protected]: 

> 'Trump Was Right: FAA Turned Away Qualified Controllers Over Race'
> 
><https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/01/31/trump-was-right-faa-turned
>-away-qualified-controllers-over-race-n4936558> 
> 
> 
> 'On Thursday, while addressing Thursday’s plane crash near
> Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump blasted both the Obama and
> Biden administrations for prioritizing diversity, equity, and
> inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the Federal Aviation Administration
> and the Department of Transportation. 
> 
> "I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first,
> and they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen," Trump told
> reporters in the White House briefing room.
> 
> Democrats and the mainstream media were outraged.
> 
> “It’s one thing for internet pundits to spew up conspiracy
> theories,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
> “It’s another for the president of the United States of America to
> throw out idle speculation even as victims are still being recovered
> and families are still being notified. It turns your stomach.” 
> 
> But Trump was not wrong.
> 
> In fact, concerns about the FAA's DEI policies are not new. Critics
> have long argued that these policies have distracted from essential
> safety measures, particularly during a period marked by air traffic
> controller shortages, outdated equipment, and an increase in near
> misses. Reports indicate that the air traffic controller on duty
> during the incident was effectively managing the responsibilities of
> two people. 
> 
> Last year, 11 Republican attorneys general voiced their concerns in a
> letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, questioning the agency's
> commitment to safety in light of its emphasis on diversity over
> expertise. They expressed disappointment that the FAA appeared to
> prioritize “virtue-signaling” over securing the nation's airways.
> 
> Related: Biden’s First Pick to Lead FAA Was a Total DEI Hire Who
> Knew Nothing About Aviation
> 
> The origins of these DEI efforts can be traced back to the Obama
> administration, which initiated a focused approach to increase
> diversity within the FAA. This focus was somewhat relaxed during
> Trump's presidency but has since been rejuvenated under Biden. Most
> strikingly, the FAA had established goals to diversify its workforce
> by revising hiring practices, often sidelining qualified candidates
> for those meeting certain demographic criteria.
> 
> The Washington Times reported last year that the FAA turned away
> thousands of qualified air traffic controllers for being the wrong
> race. 
> 
> There hasn’t been a fatal airline crash in the United States since
> 2009, but it’s only a matter of time before the streak ends. The FAA
> recorded two serious, near-miss runway incursions at Reagan National
> and Baltimore-Washington International last year [2023].
> 
> Vigilance is waning because the nation’s air traffic control towers
> are woefully understaffed. The people responsible for keeping planes
> from smashing into one another are tired after working long, mandatory
> overtime shifts to make up for the lack of controllers.
> 
> Contributing to the shortage, the FAA temporarily put the brakes on
> hiring in 2012 so it could replace race-blind hiring rules with a
> “Biographical Assessment” stratagem designed to hire more
> minorities. 
> 
> This quiz served as further screening of applicants who had already
> graduated from a 200-hour training program and achieved high scores on
> AT-SAT, a grueling, eight-hour cognitive test that measures each of
> the specific skills needed to do the job properly.
> 
> […]
> 
> More than 3,000 top-performing, motivated applicants lost out because
> they weren’t members of this ethnic club. After Congress forced the
> FAA to drop the quiz in 2018, many former applicants reapplied and
> have since become controllers. Their careers were set back several
> years for no good reason.
> 
> Could colorblind hiring policies have prevented Wednesday's tragedy?
> The evidence is growing that they may have'

They had a tranny flying the helicopter.