I don't fly. When folks ask me
why, the short answer is that I know too much: I'm a former FAA air traffic
controller.
It's been recently reported that the FAA is now actively
recruiting new trainees to work in the towers and control rooms directing
airplanes and that the criteria they now utilize to screen applicants is a
curiously absurd "biographical questionnaire." Jason L.
Riley in the Wall
Street Journal:
A recently completed six-month investigation by Fox
Business Network found that the Federal Aviation Administration has quietly
moved away from merit-based hiring criteria in order to increase the number of
women and minorities who staff airport control towers. The changes
come despite the fact that the FAA's own internal reports describe the evidence
for changing the hiring process as "weak."
Until 2013, the FAA gave hiring preference to controller
applicants who earned a degree from one of its Collegiate Training Initiative
schools and scored high enough on an eight-hour screening test called the Air
Traffic Selection and Training exam, or AT-SAT, which measures cognitive
skills. The Obama administration, however, determined that the process
excluded too many from minority groups. In May 2013, the FAA's civil
rights administrator issued "barrier analyses" of the agency's
employment procedures, which recommended "revising how the AT-SAT is used
in establishing best-qualified lists."
By the start of last year, the FAA was using a biographical
questionnaire (BQ) to initially vet potential hires. The questions –
"How many sports did you play in high school?", "What has been
the major cause of your failures?" – seem designed to elicit stories of
personal disadvantage or family hardship rather than determine success on the
job.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that the FAA Air Traffic
Control Division has been down with the affirmative action program for a long
time.
The PATCO controllers' strike during the summer of 1981 seemingly
gave the "fire whitey" gang the opening they craved. There
was one problem. The air traffic system needed to get back up and
running smoothly, and especially safely, so that Ronald Reagan's mass firing
would look reasonable. So they quickly hired aviation-experienced
people, including pilots and experienced military air traffic
controllers. I was one of them. Granted, some of these
well qualified new guys were black, but no one would look upon this new
controller work force and call it a model of so-called
diversity. The big push for hiring other than pale males would have
to wait. Safety first, as it were.
A few things happened in the next few years. First, the
FAA stopped reporting aviation incidents, including near mid-air collisions and
runway incursions. When safety incidents are under-reported or
deceitfully downgraded, the system starts to look like perfection, and the FAA
will gladly report, as it frequently does, that it is "The Safest System
In The World." These people want the flying public to skate out
onto the ice, even as they are lying about how thin the ice is, and while we
are at it, how warm it is today.
Along with under-reporting system failures, the FAA started
conspiring, almost openly, with leftist groups like the Black and Hispanic
Controller's Coalition. Gay and lesbian organizations started
demanding hiring and promotion slots for their members – as if one's preference
for a particular style of recreational sexual behavior is an indispensable
predictor of air traffic control ability.
NATCA (the National Air Traffic Controllers' Association) replaced
PATCO. I was one of their officers for a period. The new
union gave wide latitude to the wacky leftist organizations, even as they
encroached on the union's right to bargain exclusively for working
conditions.
The FAA "Biographical Questionnaire," exposed last
night by Tucker Carlson Tonight has been known to
me for some time. Knowing the FAA as I do, nothing about it
surprises me. The entire exercise is designed to identify applicants
who are white males for the purpose of eliminating them from
consideration. The FAA has been openly hostile to straight white
males since 1981.
My novel, EXIT
13A – A Control Tower Diary, is an exposé on FAA abuse of
power. It is written in novel form so names could be changed to
protect the guilty.
There are a lot of reasons to limit your flying to only the most
necessary flights. The affirmative action angle is only a part of
the problem. For a more complete report, read the
book. Most people don't believe me when I tell them that boarding an
aircraft is like playing the world's largest game of Russian roulette.
See you on Greyhound.
Willie Shields is a former USMC and FAA
air traffic controller. He has experience at some of the nation's
busiest control facilities. Mr. Shields resides in Wilmington,
Delaware.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/affirmative_action_in_the_control_tower.html