The point of DEI efforts is to expand the applicant pool, not hire unqualified people. I realize that’s not as outrage-sexy in MAGA world, but that’s what it’s about. And if you want to give the impression that everybody has an equal shot at applying for aviation jobs, El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago mouthing off about DEI being some kind of factor in a fatal accident with absolutely no evidence of that isn’t going to do it. FAA training slots aren’t going begging, no matter who they hire or how they got there, and everyone has to pass the same training program. It’s hard, a lot of trainees wash out or get reassigned to slower facilities if they can’t certify at a busier place, and training just takes a while. There are some new simulation capabilities coming on line that should help shorten the training time - and to get max throughput you want an applicant pool that is as broad as possible. That’s what DEI is supposed to accomplish.
Just a timely, newsworthy offering to any controllers that may have lingering questions of their value and worth in their workplace in the tower, no doubt in direct reference to the recent tragedy, uttered just moments ago by the Great One: Word for word in response to a question about the 19 - 24 year old kids that are now working with Musk in DOGE…
" The kids now working in the White House (going over to DOGE) are smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers where we need smart people where we should put some of these DOGE people in the control towers where we were putting people in the control towers that were actually intellectually deficient, it was actually one of the qualifications for the job is you could be intellectually deficient."
So grateful that he cleared that up. Always helpful to pinpoint a problem, saves time and money.
Dave (Vayuwings), you nailed it. The Great One’s comments about “intellectually deficient” controllers aren’t just offensive, they’re fear-based propaganda at its finest. The playbook is simple: create a boogeyman, blame minorities and women, stir division, and protect the same old power structures. DEI isn’t a problem, it’s a solution, bringing in smart, capable people that the exclusionary systems ignored for too long.
Now, the FAA’s staffing crisis wasn’t caused by “deficient” hires, it’s the result of budget cuts, poor leadership, and a failure to modernize. Trump’s rhetoric echoes the Jim Crow era, when scapegoating was used to block progress and cement control. If we keep letting this divisive nonsense shape policy, we’ll see the same tragic consequences-reduced opportunities, stagnation, and preventable disasters.
James, having qualified air traffic controllers is as essential as fuel in the tank. Without them, the whole system sputters. Safety and efficiency must be the guiding stars, no question. But instead of seeing diversity as something steering us off-course, we should see it as a co-pilot that can cruise right alongside good ol’ merit-based hiring. If the FAA fine-tunes its hiring, speeds up training without cutting corners, and stays tuned in to folks who know the ropes, we can fill those controller seats while keeping both safety and fairness in check. Let’s aim for a win-win: skilled controllers at the helm, ranks filled to meet demand, modern equipment to support them, and representation that reflects the diverse skies we share—all working together for safer, smoother flying for everyone.
DIE is simply illegal racism. Its practitioners vociferously condemn their enemies for anything that can be connected by any shred to racism, then claim moral superiority when engaged in the exact same behavior by another name. They argue that standards are not being relaxed, even as LA burns to the ground and the FAA states that they want to hire people with mental and emotional disorders. In a safety critical industry like aviation, that this is even a topic of discussion is appalling. If this weren’t a political favorite it never would have been allowed. If you don’t hire for merit, you don’t get merit.
Questions:
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Why was the directional portion of the helo’s flight path very erratic vs flying the published helo route putting them exactly in the center of the river head on to incoming airline traffic?
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Why and what prompted the helo pilot to request visual separation when looking at a conga line of airliners in their collective faces?
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Why did the controller not direct the helo for an immediate left turn when it was obvious the two aircraft where on a collision course long enough to trigger CA warnings and allow for two controller questions asking if traffic in sight with two wierd helo responses asking again for visual separation yet saying traffic in sight?
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Regardless if the legal responsibility for visual traffic separation is now on the helo crew because they requested it…with the controller approving it…why would the controller even allow any potential traffic conflict to take place in the middle of the river down the extended centerline of 33…knowing the CRJ is belly up on a circle to land visual approach that he requested the CRJ to perform?
As a side not, I would include article links […] how exactly should I properly do this?
Flagged comments will be published after an editor has vetted the links. Regular posters earn badges which are accompanied by increased privileges, including, (at some point), having links go through without being flagged. In the meantime, I’d suggest posting them as a reply to your original post. That ‘links’ reply will be flagged for a spell, but rest of want to say will get through.
The “moderators” are a bunch of 1’s and 0’s and lots of comments get flagged and hidden by the software itself - without human interaction. Generally, Russ invites commenters who had content automatically hidden to reach out to him. He will then fix it.
A great way to fix computer and laptop issues is to pour a nice hot cup of coffee into your keyboard right between the letters Z and T.
Cream and sugar accellerate the fix.
Paul, welcome back. We miss you.
Flying on privilege, not merit? That is the system DEI is fixing. What you call “illegal racism” is just giving qualified people, who have been ignored for years, a fair shot. Take a look at history. Black pilots like the Tuskegee Airmen had to fight for basic recognition of their skill, and even after proving themselves in World War II, many were still denied commercial opportunities. Women like Jackie Cochran, Nancy Love, and Cornelia Fort paved the way through programs like the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), but airlines did not start hiring female pilots until the 1970s, with pioneers like Emily Howell Warner finally breaking through.
Nobody is lowering standards. Pilots, controllers, and mechanics still have to meet the same strict requirements under FAA regulations and safety protocols. DEI just makes sure talent is not overlooked because someone did not have the right connections or was not from the “usual crowd.”
If you really believe in hiring for merit, then you should support DEI. The old system was not about merit. It was about privilege. DEI ensures the best people rise based on skill, not on who had a head start.
The 450 hour Captain was not the PIC, she was the RSP receiving instruction from the 1000 hour CW2 IP.
“The old system was not about merit. It was about privilege. DEI ensures the best people rise based on skill, not on who had a head start.”
This is an important point. I’ll just add another way to look at it…
When a minority commits a crime, does a bad thing, fails in a noticeable way, that person represents the ethos and behavior of that ENTIRE group, and therefore proves to the majority in their thinking that they are right about black people, women, gays, transgenders, liberals, atheists, immigrants, pick-a-card, any card.
But if a white, conservative, good-religious family-man commits a crime or does a bad thing, he’s just a rotten apple who their god forgives and is not representative AT ALL of all white, conservative men and women.
THAT is the institutionalized racism you seem confused about that for decades was not acknowledged by the majority, so programs like DEI were created to work for promotional representation for those living outside of ‘the club’. It has never been intended to replace or change qualifications and standards of any desired position.
DEI has therefore faced added difficulty and challenges on top of essential effort toward success from the majority who were/are driven by bias, fear and prejudice.
Some good comments and a few who understand the system better than others. During my 31 years in the FAA, all as ATC in one form or fashion, there has been a slow but steady shift in the wrong direction, and it’s all about funding. First, a controller who passes the academy in Oklahoma City would be assigned to either a control tower or center, based on their requests, their scores at the academy, and which facilities needed controllers the worst. Good scores got you a higher complexity facility. Controllers didn’t go from the academy to O’Hare or Atlanta or DCA, they started a level or so below that to get seasoning. After checking out and getting a few years experience, then bid to a higher level facility and move up. However, the FAA funds weren’t always there, due to Congress not passing a new budget so the same budget from this year gets carried over to next. So move money went away and controllers would be sent directly from the academy to a higher facility and the agency hoped they’d be able to make the grade. Many didn’t and got sent to the lower facilities, the ones they would have gone to in the beginning.
Understand that when a controller comes into a facility, they are allotted so many training hours to check out on a position, such as Clearance Delivery, Ground Control or Local Control in a tower. In the center, it’s manual/handoff position then different radar sectors, starting from the easier, less complex, ones and moving to the harder. If you don’t check out in the allotted hours, you go before a training review board who looks at your continuity of training, all your daily training reports, and interviews each trainer, the team supervisor, and the trainee. If warranted, the trainee would be assigned to a new training team with more hours, maybe 2/3 of what they started with, with the hope the trainee could check out. This is called a recycle. Now add in the DEI push a dozen years ago and the check out rate through the academy went down. The controllers who made it through the academy had lower average scores, and had a harder time checking out in the field. Recycles were frequent and many were sent to lower facilities. I know someone who is overseeing the academy instructors and verified what I’m saying. All of this exacerbated the staffing numbers as training slots were filled with those that couldn’t make the grade. One trainee who needs a recycle is the same as two training slots and two vacancies that weren’t filled.
All of that being said (phew), it might have played a small part in the DCA staffing that night, as I know one of the controllers at DCA and they’ve had several recent recycles and washouts. Otherwise, I’m asking the same questions the rest of you are. PAT is Priority Air Transport, which is continuity of government, so the helo was practicing transporting high-level government officials around Washington in the case of an attack on DC. That’s a pretty important function. I question why Local didn’t tell the CRJ about the helo to help situational awareness. Why didn’t local give a clock position to the helo the second time to ensure they were talking about the same target? Did the normal helo position operate the same way when separated from the fixed-wing local? Was there coordination between the two with each visual separation? I was always taught traffic for one is traffic for the other, but never had a separate position just to run helo traffic. The procedures for those two positions will be critical. And what was the local assist controller doing during all this?
We’ll just have to stay tuned and let the NTSB do its job. It is very good at digging though all the data points and getting to the bottom of the cause. If the FAA was half as good as incorporating their recommendations, we’d all be in a lot better shape, safety-wise.
Oh, I forgot to add that every controller has to pass a Class 2 physical every year, so the notion that people that are blind or have hearing problems, let alone mental issues, can be hired as controllers is ludicrous. The FAA has multiple non-controller jobs that can be handled by handicapped, and frequently are. Controllers who are in wheelchairs can still control, the same as amputees. You can get off that bandwagon now.
The claim that DEI is a quota system is misinformation. Quotas are illegal under U.S. law, and DEI programs do not mandate hiring based on race or gender. Instead, they address barriers to ensure fair access, with hiring decisions based on merit. Goals guide outreach, not outcomes. If quotas were in use, legal challenges would be inevitable.
Really Raf??? Every contract that I get into where public monies are involved specifically state what percentage is required of minority, gender and at times even where you live is required to be on the project for me to even be considered. This has been going on for decades under the guise of affirmative action. They just changed the identifier and they now call it DEI. Nothing has changed.
Privilege is as racist a term as any, and is used to signal moral superiority. It was invented by the people who think USAID was a great idea, and is just as corrupt. In reality the deficit experienced by many applicants has nothing to do with centuries old forced servitude but is a reflection of the failure of US education, union dominated grade schools followed by hypersensitive colleges teaching whole categories of students they are victims. The solution is, conveniently, government intervention.
Race mongers live in ancient history. They refuse to open their illogical minds to the possibility that maybe they are causing the problem. They won’t reconsider until it is their house that is burning down from incompetence and corruption, and even then odds are only 50-50. Apparently, evidence does not exist as long as you refuse to see.
“Race mongers live in ancient history. They refuse to open their illogical minds to the possibility that maybe they are causing the problem. They won’t reconsider until it is their house that is burning down from incompetence and corruption, and even then odds are only 50-50. Apparently, evidence does not exist as long as you refuse to see.”
If this paragraph is not prophetic I don’t know what is.
Mr. Milkshake and Niio, let’s clear up a few things.
Mr. Milkshake, the percentages you’re seeing in public contracts come from affirmative action policies, not DEI. Affirmative action has been around for decades under laws like Executive Order 11246 to give underrepresented groups a shot at government-funded projects. But let’s not mix apples and oranges, affirmative action handles access, while DEI focuses on creating inclusive workplaces once folks are through the door. The name may have changed in some circles, but DEI isn’t about quotas, it’s about removing obstacles that keep people from thriving.
Niio, when it comes to privilege, it’s not about labeling folks as morally superior or inferior, it’s about recognizing the simple fact that some start the race a few steps ahead. If you’re born in a good neighborhood with well-funded schools or inherit family wealth, you’ve got a head start. Acknowledging that doesn’t mean blaming anyone, but if you ignore the starting line, you’ll never understand why some folks can’t catch up.
Calling systemic issues “ancient history” won’t fix the problem. Redlining didn’t officially end until the late 1900s, and its effects linger, underfunded schools, low homeownership, and limited economic mobility didn’t just pop up out of thin air. Blaming education without looking at the pipes behind it is like fixing a leaky roof without patching the holes. Solutions don’t come from waving off history or blaming those trying to fix it, they come from rolling up our sleeves and working on the underlying problems together.
After reading many of the replies/comments, I don’t recall seeing any discussion of the different frequencies used VHF & UHF which didn’t allow for the individual aircraft to hear complete communication which might have enhanced the situational awareness. I know when I’m flying, listening and making that mental 3D pic of my changing environment, the more info I have, the better!