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On 01 Feb 2025, John Smyth <smythlejon2@hotmail.com> posted some news:gm8spj5sqm261f79fr0qbj3joa3lfo065b@4ax.com:

'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safety measures, particularly during a period marked by air traffic controller shortages, outdated equipment, and an increase in near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.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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