Donald Trump blamed yesterday’s plane crash in Washington D.C. on Presidents Biden and Obama, obliquely citing DEI policies. Claiming to be reading from a news report without specifying when or where it was published, the president blamed a group in the Federal Aviation Administration that “determined that the [FAA] workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately.” He then commented on the report by stating that “this was in the Obama administration, just prior to my getting there, and we took care of African Americans, Hispanic Americans.”
The FAA did indeed go through a change in its recruitment of air traffic controllers under the Obama administration. Air traffic controllers have historically been selected by passing an 8-hour cognitive exam called the Air Traffic Skills Assessment test (AT-SA) before moving on to more serious training for the job. Many taking the exam come from military academies, or special college training programs that started 1997 called “Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiatives” (AT-CTI), although the AT-SA is also open to the general public. At the same time, the FAA had been under pressure to diversify its workforce, with a 2009 report finding that it was “the least diverse agency within the executive branch of the federal government.”
Under the Obama administration, the FAA implemented a new test for air traffic controllers called a “Biographical Assessment,” which was designed specifically to increase diversity. The agency considered the results of this test first, passing or failing applicants before considering AT-SA results. The biographical test asked questions that appear unrelated to the job of air traffic controller, like in which high school class an applicant fared worse, or how many sports they played. An FAA official who was instrumental in the Biographical Test’s development was also caught leaving voicemails and issuing guidance to applicants linked to the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), telling them how to pass the test. At one point, the FAA official stated that he was “about 99 point 99 percent sure that it is exactly how you need to answer each question.”
After considerable backlash, particularly from administrators of AT-CTI programs, the test was deprioritized as a first-line hiring tool in 2016 and fully discontinued in 2018. A class action lawsuit was also filed by more than 1,000 AT-CTI graduates (Brigida v. Buttigieg) and is underway in federal court, alleging they were passed over for the job of air traffic controller due to its implementation. The lawsuit does not claim that those hired throughout the use of the Biographical Assessment are necessarily incompetent, but rather that its implementation prevented AT-CTI grads from demonstrating their own competence by deprioritizing their specialized training. This appears to be what J.D. Vance was referring to in his comments today when he claimed that “you have many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin.”
Donald Trump pointed to unrelated policies in order to imply an issue with the air traffic control staff, reading from a January 14th Fox News headline stating that the “FAA says people with ‘severe’ disabilities are most underrepresented segment of federal workforce.” Referring to the article, Trump said “they want them in, they can be air traffic controllers – I don’t think so.” Further down in the article, however, the FAA states that it employs tens of thousands of employees across a wide range of positions, “from administrative roles to oversight and execution of critical safety functions,” and that the agency “proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible.” Nothing in the article points to anyone with disqualifying traits (e.g. lack of focus, vision or hearing problems etc.) being considered for the job of air traffic controller.
Asked how he could determine that these factors were decisive in last night’s crash, Trump admitted that it was speculation, saying that “It just could have been.” Pressed further on how he could be so sure as to single out these factors so soon after the crash and with no evidence pointing to it, the president pushed back. “Because I have common sense, ok,” the president said. “And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”
The president’s comments were echoed by other officials in his administration. The recently-appointed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy implied that standards had been loosened, saying that “we can only accept the best and the brightest.” Pete Hegseth, recently confirmed as Secretary of Defense by the Senate, stated that “the era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department, and we need the best and brightest.”
