By Free Republic | Created at 2025-02-01 09:05:47 | Updated at 2025-02-01 11:51:54
3 hours ago
‘DEI cost me a job in aviation – a crash was inevitable’
Telegraph ^ | January 31, 2025 | Connor Stringer
Posted on 02/01/2025 12:23:28 AM PST by grundle
An aspiring air traffic controller who claimed he was denied a job because of diversity targets said the aviation agency’s obsession with inclusion made an accident likely to happen.
Andrew Brigida, 35, scored 100 per cent in his training exam but alleged that he was denied a position in an air traffic control tower because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recruitment process favoured diverse candidates. He is part of a class action lawsuit filed against the federal agency.
Speaking after the Washington air disaster, in which 67 people were killed, Mr Brigida claimed that years of diversity hiring meant it was only a matter of time before an accident happened.
“You want to hire the best and the brightest for this kind of job because it is a very stressful job and it can take a toll on you, age you prematurely,” he told The Telegraph. “You want to make sure that the people that are doing it are the best.”
Mr Brigida graduated from Arizona State University’s collegiate training initiative in 2013 – a partnership programme with the FAA that was previously used to train and select the most qualified applicants.
After scoring top marks in his air traffic control selection and training examination, he was placed on a preferred candidate list until the FAA changed the rules. Under the Obama administration, the regulator replaced a skills-based test with a biographical questionnaire to attract more diverse applicants.
When Mr Brigida tried again to become an air traffic controller under the new tests, he said he failed the biographical questionnaire because he “didn’t fit the preferred ethnic profile”.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: sidebarabuse
1 posted on 02/01/2025 12:23:28 AM PST by grundle
To: grundle
2 posted on 02/01/2025 12:53:02 AM PST by nopardons
To: grundle
I took that test back in 1971. It wasn’t easy and I didn’t have a good feeling about my performance as I left the room. I heard nothing from the FAA for over a year. Finally I got an offer from them. It was for a particular location in Georgia. Not Atlanta airport, but some regional center, I think. The pay was even worse than what I was getting, so I didn’t follow up.
3 posted on 02/01/2025 12:53:03 AM PST by ComputerGuy
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