Trump Is Right: Obama FAA Policy Penalized ‘High Aptitude’ Applicants, Even Chicago Tribune Was Worried in 2021

In the wake of the Washington, D.C., air disaster Wednesday which claimed 67 lives, scrutiny immediately fell upon air-traffic control readiness, given that a mid-air collision was involved.

Indeed, as The Washington Post reported, one controller was handling both airliner and helicopter traffic at Reagan National Airport when American Eagle Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided, something a source said was “not normal.”

Furthermore, the crash came just days after President Donald Trump signed an order rescinding an FAA initiative begun during the Obama years that prioritized hiring those with “targeted disabilities,” including “severe physical disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, and intellectual disabilities.”

Naturally, the fact the specter of DEI hiring got mentioned in the wake of a crash where ATC fitness may have played a role infuriated Democrats, especially Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“While times of tragedy should be focused on mourning the victims and getting answers to their loved ones, we face the unfortunate reality that we must be honest with the nation about: Donald Trump is unfit to lead during moments of crisis like this,” Pritzker said in a statement.

“Before victims have even been identified, Trump is blaming people with disabilities. He’s blaming the U.S. service members in the Blackhawk helicopter. He’s blaming hiring programs he can’t even name or offer examples of. The buck stops with him – yet he is failing to demonstrate his role as protector of the American people and head of our government.”

Let’s disregard Pritzker claiming the buck stopped with Trump, blaming a president who had only been in office nine days for the crash. Apparently, Gov. Pritzker hasn’t been reading his hometown papers these past few years — because less than three years ago, the Chicago Tribune sounded the same warning about ATC readiness that the president did.

The piece began with the story of Brittany Powers, an honors student from Lewis University who was passed over by the Federal Aviation Administration not because of her qualifications, but because its “biographical assessment” portion of the hiring process included “questions about how peers would describe the individual and the age at which the person started to earn money.”

“It’s the result of an abrupt overhaul this year to the FAA’s air traffic controller hiring policy, which for almost 25 years gave preferred status to aviation graduates like Powers as well as former military controllers,” the Tribune reported.

“Now, the FAA is conducting an off-the-street recruiting process for all candidates. It begins with the assessment, which is open to most people with a high school diploma.”

“Critics argue that the unproven strategy will cost millions of dollars and could complicate FAA attempts to replenish its workforce, erode passenger safety in the long term and increase travel delays, in part because an influx of aviation novices hired from among the general public would create more work for veteran controllers in an already high-stress job.”

The report noted experts “also suggest that the policy appears quietly aimed at attracting more minorities and women to a workforce that is largely male and white, even though the FAA says the new policy is ‘blind on the issue of diversity, from start to finish.’”

This is decidedly not what the FAA’s webpage said, going all the way back to 2013.

“Diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond,” the page read.

“Because diversity is so critical, FAA actively supports and engages in a variety of associations, programs, coalitions and initiatives to support and accommodate employees from diverse communities and backgrounds. Our people are our strength, and we take great care in investing in and valuing them as such.”

Furthermore, the FAA has stopped hiring controllers from its usual source, the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative — something that’s currently the source of a lawsuit which alleges the Obama administration overlooked roughly 1,000 qualified candidates because the pool wasn’t diverse enough.

The move away from the Collegiate Training Initiative, the Tribune noted, could lead to staffing shortages and create invisible hazards for fliers.

“The Association of Collegiate Training Institutions, which represents the 36 U.S. air traffic control schools, said the new FAA hiring process will ‘jeopardize air traffic safety, cost millions of dollars more to implement and take longer to train a controller workforce that is already critically under-manned,’” the report stated.

Also, as the Daily Signal noted in 2023, the implementation of the woke “biographical assessment” was even worse than it sounds on paper.

“The assessment reportedly gives more points to applicants who have not been employed for the last three years than to an applicant who answers that he has been a pilot or a veteran with an air traffic control-related military background,” the outlet reported.

Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, noted that the “biographical assessment penalizes air traffic controller candidates who demonstrate a high aptitude in science. It’s insane.”

Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson also sounded the alarm about the policy in 2018

“Applicants who had been unemployed for the previous three years got more points than licensed pilots got. In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers,” Carlson said.

“That is insane. And they knew it was insane when they did it, but they did it anyway.”

Thus, one can only conclude that Gov. Pritzker isn’t much of a reader or news-watcher — or he simply ignores inconvenient facts. Either one removes him from serious consideration in this matter, however.

This isn’t to say that any of this played a role the crash that claimed 67 lives Wednesday night. But watering down air safety in the name of diversity will eventually end in tragedy if left unchecked — and a refusal to ask pertinent questions when they’re most needed will only ensure it happens sooner rather than later.

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