Tag: faa

How Obama’s FAA used a skewed multiple-choice quiz to prioritize DEI applicants and bar the brightest from air traffic controller jobs

A job questionnaire for aspiring air traffic controllers introduced by the Obama administration was designed to meet secret DEI target numbers, DailyMail.com can reveal. 

The aspiring controllers were given extra credit for being ‘risk takers’, in the bizarre multiple-choice quiz to secretly prioritize DEI applicants. 

It required virtually no knowledge of aviation to pass but top marks were awarded to candidates who ‘need a great deal of time to complete assignments’ and ‘take chances very often’.  

And playing three or more sports in high school was rated more valuable than having a stint as an air traffic controller in the military.

Now DailyMail.com has obtained the quiz so you can see how you would fare. 

The 2014 entry test proved notoriously hard to pass for elite, mostly white college graduates who excelled in traditional cognitive tests.

But race reformers said it paved the way for more ‘off the street’ hires – namely women and minorities – to land high stakes jobs responsible for the lives of millions of air passengers.

‘Bonkers is the right word for this,’ one aviation expert told DailyMail.com.

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FAA embroiled in lawsuit alleging it turned away 1,000 applicants based on race — that contributed to staffing woes

The Federal Aviation Administration is fighting a class-action lawsuit alleging it denied 1,000 would-be air traffic controllers jobs because of diversity hiring targets — as it was revealed that staffing levels were “not normal” at the time of this week’s deadly midair collision.

Complaints about the FAA’s hiring policies resurfaced after the American Airlines passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, killing 67 people in the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter-century.

Details of the litigation re-emerged, too, as Andrew Brigida, the lead plaintiff in the suit filed in 2015, suggested the federal aviation agency’s obsession with diversity hiring and inclusion had only ensured that an accident was likely to happen.

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Fact Check: Yes, Obama and Biden Had FAA Hire People with Intellectual, Psychiatric, Severe Physical Disabilities

As someone whose father was in the aeronautics business — and who got passed on plenty of his wisdom from a young age — there are two things that I know, even as an unskilled observer, about airplane crashes.

The first is that there’s never one single thing to blame for disasters, especially when it involves airliners; so much redundancy is built into the system that numerous things have to go wrong, either simultaneously or over a period of time, for a crash to happen. The second is that nobody — nobody — knows what caused the disaster in the first 24 hours. (Anyone old enough to remember how wrong we were 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, may have reached a new low in this department. As Dan McLaughlin pointed out at National Review, people are already blaming Trump administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for the disaster just outside of Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.

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Drone Psy-Op Timeline: Why Lying Was Useful To Biden, His 11th Hour FAA Hire Was Obama’s Guy

In mid-November, shortly after the election, the drone sightings began to mount. You remember. It was eerie. Easily written off by the media at first, the sightings–and video evidence–slowly flooded social media. The size and quantity of the vehicles (and footage) became impossible to ignore.

The Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) became a new fact of life…during the transition of power.

Our government, led by the lamest of lame ducks in modern memory, repeatedly failed to provide clarity. The sound of dragging bureaucratic feet was deafening. Hearings were held for the mayors of affected municipalities, then for congress. Attendees left these meetings frustrated, with no solid answers.

In an information vacuum, the conspiracy theories naturally mounted. Were they here to spy? Protect? Locate stolen nuclear material?

Space Oddities

Before the drone outbreak, there were ominous events in governmental expansion and legacy media which set the table for the Biden administration psy-op.

First, the Trump administration green-lighted Space Force, a new branch of the armed forces, and the eighth national, uniformed service group.

Star Trek jokes abounded, especially when the logo–looking very much like a version of the franchise’s Starfleet Command–was revealed.

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White House Clarifies ‘Dronegate’: New Jersey UAPs Authorized By FAA For “Research Purposes”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt provided much-needed transparency regarding the “dronegate” incident that sparked nationwide concerns over potential threats from China and Russia.

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Leavitt said the drones spotted over New Jersey and New York in December had been authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration for “research purposes.” 

“An update on the New Jersey drones. After research and study, the drones flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones are hobbyist and recreational drones that enjoy flying drones,” Leavitt said during her press conference. 

She concluded on the drone subject: “This was not the enemy.” 

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FAA Emails Shed Light on UAP Tracking Amid Chinese Balloon Scare

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in May 2023 by The Black Vault, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released 129 pages of documents concerning emails sent to and from Michael Freie, a technical advisor in the FAA’s Air Traffic Surveillance Services Office.

The request, FOIA case 2024-04951, sought communications containing keywords such as “Unidentified Aerial,” “Unidentified Flying,” “UAP,” “UFO,” and related terms.

The FOIA request stemmed from Mr. Freie’s involvement as a speaker at NASA’s Public UAP Meeting held on May 31, 2023. Known for his expertise in air traffic surveillance, Freie has served as a critical figure within the FAA, providing insights into the systems monitoring U.S. airspace and their limitations. During the meeting, he delivered a detailed explanation of how the FAA monitors civilian airspace and the ongoing challenges in identifying and tracking objects that deviate from typical flight behaviors.

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Counterfeit Chinese Titanium Discovered In Some Boeing Jets, Per FAA

On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Boeing acknowledged some parts of their jets contain counterfeit titanium from China.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that Boeing had told officials they had received titanium parts containing counterfeit documentation.

Boeing bought the counterfeit components from Kansas-based aerostructure manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems.

In the past, Spirit AeroSystems has had problems with quality issues.

The Financial Times reported Spirit AeroSystems received the titanium from China, where its documentation was reportedly falsified.

The FAA said in a statement, “Once we realized the counterfeit titanium made its way into the supply chain, we immediately contained all suspected parts to determine the scope of the issues.”

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FAA Reauthorization Bill Approves Digital IDs

The Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization act May 9. Amongst its thousands of pages the bill includes wordage on page 1015 that approves the use of digital identification.

The push to digital methods of identifying people is not only limited to the FAA, as the Biden White House has also published a cybersecurity initiative that includes provisions for digital ID.

The push by the FAA to include digital ID as an acceptable form of information does not come as a surprise, as airports have been implementing various forms of biometric identification scanning systems.

The FAA bill is not clear as to if one form of a ‘mobile driver’s license’ is a photo of a driver’s license card on a mobile phone.

Instead, the bill goes right on to discuss the need for the federal agency to take part in celebrations surrounding the 125th anniversary of heavier-than-air flight by the Americans, over a century after Europeans mastered lighter-than-air flight.

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FAA launches recruitment campaign for workers with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric problems and physical issues to hit woke DEI targets

The Federal Aviation Administration is looking for recruits with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities as it tries to hit woke DEI targets.

The agency is hunting people with psychiatric issues and other mental and physical conditions in its latest diversity drive.

The FAA, which includes jobs such as air traffic controllers, are keen to employ those with hearing and vision impairments, missing limbs, partial and complete paralysis.

Such a broad recruitment is all part of what the FAA term its ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ hiring plan.

The FAA, overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is responsible for regulating civil aviation and currently employs around 47,000 people, while John P. Benison is charged with implementing the agency’s DEI plan.

Benison, whose official title is as Assistant Administrator, Office of Civil Rights, ‘is responsible for assuring equal opportunity, and diversity precepts within the FAA’ with his officer overseeing all ‘civil rights, equal opportunity, and diversity matters.’

The FAA states on its website how individuals with ‘severe’ mental and physical disabilities represent an under-represented segment of the federal workforce. 

The agency ‘actively supports diversity through various associations, programs, coalitions, and initiatives, emphasizing the importance of its diverse workforce.’

‘Diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond,’ the FAA states.

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FAA abruptly cancels ‘national defense airspace’ over Lake Michigan after reporting ‘potential contact’

The Federal Aviation Administration has abruptly canceled a “national defense airspace” over part of Lake Michigan, the organization announced Sunday.

The FAA says it closed down the area to allow the U.S. military to examine a “potential contact” that was soon determined to not be a threat. The FAA last established a national defense airspace over Montana this weekend in reaction to an unidentified flying object.

“Pilots who do not adhere to the following [procedure] may be intercepted, detained and interviewed by law enforcement or security personnel,” the FAA wrote in an initial Sunday announcement, adding that such pilots may face deadly force in the air.

“The FAA briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense activities. The airspace has been reopened,” the FAA wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.

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