Trump Needs a Filter – AgainBy Phil Perkins February 3, 2025In the aftermath of the recent horrific crash involving a military helicopter and a civilian passenger airplane that killed all 67 people on board, it was important for governmental leaders – especially the president – to show compassion toward the families of the victims. However, President Trump seemed more interested in casting blame on the policies of previous administrations than providing presidential empathy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to realize that he could have accomplished both by displaying just a smidgen of tactfulness. As the investigators perform a thankless job over the next few weeks or months with limited information (for instance, the Blackhawk helicopter has no black box to record what was going on before the crash), there will be endless speculation about what caused the crash to happen. However, there is one undeniable cause that bears further investigation and that Trump, in his ham-handed way, may or may not have been alluding to. That is, there is a dearth of air traffic controllers, and that may have been a contributing factor in the crash. Why? Because from what we have heard, the controller involved in directing the aircraft in question was doing the job that normally two controllers would do. According to a British Broadcasting Company article (a source I trust), President Trump said a "diversity push" by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US government agency in charge of civil aviation, had focused "on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities." He added: "They can be air traffic controllers." The president appeared to be referring to diversity and inclusion policies established during the Obama administration. They included "targeted disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring." As oftentimes happens when Trump is on a rant, what he stated is true, to an extent. The policy actually referred to FAA employment in general, of which air traffic controllers are just a portion. According to the BBC article, all candidates for air traffic controller (ATC) positions must meet rigorous standards of aptitude, medical, and security qualifications, including those with some limitations. The FAA says that all ATC candidates are screened during the recruitment process for psychological issues. So, with all of that information at the ready, was Trump barking up the wrong tree with his claim that “DEI hiring” caused the crash? Although we don’t know that for sure, the available evidence seems to point at the ATC shortage as more of a proximate cause. And if that is the case, then why is there a shortage of qualified ATCs, even as the government has mandated hiring from a more diverse pool of candidates than before? Shouldn’t this be something the investigators focus attention on as they proceed? In researching for this article, I came across a claim that in the 2012-13 time frame, the Obama administration basically “froze out” the applications of about 1,000 ATC candidates who were qualified for positions, due to race considerations. This would lead a reasonable person to believe that in promoting the hiring of a more diverse group of ATCs, most if not all of the 1,000 rejected candidates were white. However, while a major class-action lawsuit has been filed against the FAA over claims that applications for air traffic controllers were rejected based on race, the same article claims that the Mountain States Legal Foundation is representing hundreds of people from different racial backgrounds who say they were discriminated against under the FAA's hiring policy. In any event, if otherwise qualified candidates were rejected due to a diversity goal, this would help explain the current shortage of ATCs. In the meantime, Trump’s offer of “buyouts” to federal employees, including ATCs, seems to be working at cross-purposes with the need to augment the ATC force. And that gets us back to the situation just prior to the recent crash, when allegedly one ATC was doing the job that two would normally be doing. Keeping in mind how stressful an ATC job is to begin with, the ATC in question must have been under extraordinary stress while trying to direct both the helicopter and the arriving airplane in the busyness of Reagan National Airport. But that does not necessarily mean that this ATC was “unqualified” due to DEI hiring practices or any other reason. The ongoing investigations should certainly be looking into the background of this individual, but not with any preconceived notions about their capabilities or lack thereof. To say that Trump wasn’t nuanced enough in his post-crash remarks is an understatement, given the information his staff should have provided him beforehand. Please do better if there is a next time, Mr. President. Given the state of air travel and near misses recently, unfortunately a next time in the near future is a real possibility.
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