As somebody whose father was within the aeronautics enterprise — and who received handed on loads of his knowledge from a younger age — there are two issues that I do know, whilst an unskilled observer, about airplane crashes.
The primary is that there’s by no means one single factor responsible for disasters, particularly when it includes airliners; a lot redundancy is constructed into the system that quite a few issues should go incorrect, both concurrently or over a time frame, for a crash to occur. The second is that no person — no person — is aware of what brought on the catastrophe within the first 24 hours. (Anybody sufficiently old to recollect how incorrect we had been about TWA Flight 800 being bombed or hit by a missile?)
The collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army helicopter, which claimed 67 lives, might have reached a brand new low on this division. As Dan McLaughlin identified at National Review, persons are already blaming Trump administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for the catastrophe simply exterior of Reagan Nationwide Airport close to Washington, D.C.
Duffy took workplace the morning earlier than the collision, which kind of guidelines him out as an element. Not that this stopped anyone on social media, after all:
“It’s not normal to have plane collide.”
– Transportation Secretary Sean DuffyYa assume?
And sure – he actually stated this.
That is what occurs when Fake Information speaking heads are put in cost. Duffy and Hegseth each must be pressured to resign.
Oh, and impeach trump.
— Eric Slater (@ericsslater) January 30, 2025
Nevertheless, McLaughlin additionally famous “that Trump has truly moved to repair an issue with how we rent air-traffic controllers, with the intention to reorient it towards hiring the very best folks with the intention to make air-traffic management safer.”
The query raises itself: We weren’t hiring air-traffic controllers, a number of the most crucial positions in civilian authorities make use of, merely on the premise of benefit?
Reality examine: Correct, sadly.
And never solely that, we’ve been doing that since Barack Obama’s administration, permitting for these with mental, psychiatric, and bodily disabilities to obtain what we’d now name DEI protections.
Let’s begin from an archived 2013 version of the Federal Aviation Administration’s web site and its “range and inclusion” web page.
“Range is integral to reaching FAA’s mission of making certain protected and environment friendly journey throughout our nation and past,” the web page learn. “As a result of range is so essential, FAA actively helps and engages in quite a lot of associations, packages, coalitions and initiatives to assist and accommodate workers from numerous communities and backgrounds. Our persons are our power, and we take nice care in investing in and valuing them as such.”
A part of this included hiring these with “focused disabilities”: “Focused disabilities are these disabilities that the Federal authorities, as a matter of coverage, has recognized for particular emphasis in recruitment and hiring. They embody listening to, imaginative and prescient, lacking extremities, partial paralysis, full paralysis, epilepsy, extreme mental incapacity, psychiatric incapacity and dwarfism.”
In 2019 — underneath the Trump administration, it should be stated — the FAA “introduced a pilot program to assist put together folks with disabilities for careers in air visitors operations.” Once more, it emphasised that it was wanting “to establish particular alternatives for folks with focused disabilities, empower them and facilitate their entry right into a extra numerous and inclusive workforce.”
In an archived page from December 2024, the FAA touted “‘On-the-spot’ particular appointment authority” to rent people by way of a “non-competitive hiring technique,” one in all which concerned “hiring folks with extreme bodily disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, and mental disabilities.”
The initiative was final up to date on March 23, 2022, based on Fox News.
Furthermore, the Biden administration was already being sued due to discriminatory hiring practices for air-traffic controllers.
“From 1989 to 2013, the Collegiate Coaching Initiative program was a pipeline to a profession in air visitors management. This system aimed to make sure future air visitors controllers had the talents and information needed to hold out the job,” the Washington Times reported in Might 2024.
“Greater than ten years in the past, the Obama Administration scrapped 1000 certified candidates. The administration’s justification was that the pool of candidates was not numerous sufficient, so they might be purged from consideration. As an alternative of hiring candidates with probably the most competency, people had been elevated for hiring consideration based mostly on their race.
“Regardless of their intent to broaden the air visitors management hiring pool by way of DEI, the FAA has not too long ago admitted they’re woefully understaffed and that present air visitors controllers are severely overworked. One report discovered that solely 3 of the 313 air visitors amenities across the nation met the FAA targets final 12 months. This has pressured the company to confess security might be jeopardized. To mitigate such hazard, the company has ‘at occasions halted departures or in any other case slowed down air visitors.’”
Trump has reversed this hiring coverage; a fact sheet from the White Home stated the administration deliberate “to right away cease Biden DEI hiring packages and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring” and would require “the FAA Administrator to assessment the previous efficiency and efficiency requirements of all FAA workers in essential security positions and clarify that any particular person who fails to reveal satisfactory functionality is changed by somebody who will guarantee Individuals’ flight security and effectivity.”
Now, let me reiterate what I stated on the high: We do not know what caused this crash, and we won’t know the precise particulars for a while. What we do know is that, when a collision between to plane is concerned, the specter of insufficiently adept air-traffic management monitoring raises itself as a possible issue.
And regardless of the case, these social media posters had far more to be alarmed about than these blaming Sean Duffy for one thing he clearly had no management over:
FAA recruits employees with ‘extreme mental’ disabilities
That is nuts! https://t.co/YkNys6QdMP— Mark Groubert (@lordbuckly) January 15, 2024
Uh, #FAA are you able to be extra particular? #DEI @PeteButtigieg #InclusionTakenTooFar ? #AirlineSafety #TransportationSafety pic.twitter.com/cOeSu1NOUd
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) January 15, 2024
Present job itemizing for an air visitors controller on the FAA’s web site is open to folks with disabilities together with psychiatric & mental delays.
Doesn’t it make you’re feeling protected figuring out your air visitors controller can have an mental incapacity or have a seizure whereas… pic.twitter.com/7H8QXQ39WR
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 6, 2024
Meaningless DEI initiatives are infuriating sufficient on their very own accord once they prioritize id over benefit in non-critical positions. When the outcomes could be lethal, nonetheless, infuriating turns to chilling.
This text appeared initially on The Western Journal.
