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By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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Complaints about the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) hiring policy have resurfaced following the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport aircraft disaster, including claims that candidates were rejected based on race.
Newsweek has contacted the FAA for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Details surrounding the midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter, which left as many as 67 people dead, are still emerging. President Donald Trump has suggested diversity hiring programs were to blame, though he did not provide evidence to support his claims.
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What to Know
Scrutiny over the FAA's hiring policies was raised years before Wednesday's accident near Reagan National Airport.
A major class-action lawsuit has been filed against the federal agency over claims that applications for air traffic controllers were rejected based on race.
The original lawsuit was filed on behalf of Andrew Brigida, who claimed the FAA under the Obama administration dropped a skill-based system for hiring air traffic controllers (ATCs) and replaced it with a "biographical assessment," which was allegedly used to attract more minority applicants.
Brigida, who is white and scored 100 percent on his training exam, said he was discriminated against because of his race when his application was rejected.
In January 2014, Brigida received an email informing him that the FAA was "implementing changes to improve and streamline" the hiring process for air traffic controllers and that his application was "impacted" by these changes, according to William Perry Pendley, an attorney and president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the firm handling the lawsuit.
The Mountain States Legal Foundation is representing hundreds of people from different racial backgrounds who say they were discriminated against under the FAA's hiring policy.
The FAA and the Department of Transportation are contesting the lawsuit.
The FAA's biographical assessment was a screening tool used to assess applicants' behaviors and experiences. The test involved multiple-choice questions on topics such as decision-making, handling pressure, and risk management.
The FAA dropped the biographical assessment in 2018 in response to Congress passing a law banning its use. The FAA says on its website that the assessment was removed as a screening tool, and all applicants are now required to take the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA).
What People Are Saying
Andrew Brigida, speaking to British newspaper The Telegraph on Thursday: "You want to hire the best and the brightest for this kind of job because it is a very stressful job and can take a toll on you, aging you prematurely. You want to make sure that the people doing it are the best."
Mountain States Legal Foundation said in a Thursday statement: "DEI hiring policies have no place in America, especially in safety-critical industries, yet they have shaped the FAA's hiring decisions for years. Last night's accident is a sobering reminder of the cost of placing ideology over expertise. How many more tragedies must occur before we return to common sense? It's time to demand accountability, end DEI hiring in aviation, and restore safety as the top priority in our airways."
FAA statement to Fox News in April 2024: "Every FAA-certified air traffic controller has gone through months of screening and training at the FAA Academy, and that is before another 18-24 months of training to learn specific regions and airspaces. There is a well-known national shortage of air traffic controllers, and the FAA has ramped up outreach to ensure no talent is left on the table. We are accelerating the pace of recruiting, training, and hiring to meet demand while maintaining the highest qualification standards."
President Donald Trump during Thursday's press conference: "We have to have our smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. What matters is intellect, talent. The word talent—they have to be talented, naturally talented, geniuses. Brilliant people have to be in those positions [air traffic controllers], and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened, because of the stress, where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it."
What Happens Next
A civil discrimination case against the FAA involving around 900 claimants is expected to go to court early next year.
An investigation to determine the cause of the Ronald Reagan National Airport accident is underway, though this could take months or even years to complete.
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