The plot thickens: Did DEI contribute to the plane crash in Washington, D.C.?

In his press conference yesterday, President Trump’s assertion that the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) mandates in effect as federal policy may have contributed to the tragic loss of life in Wednesday’s plane crash in Washington, D.C., was mercilessly attacked by the MSM. The record that’s emerging, however, appears to support the president’s claims.

According to the Washington Post on January 30, “The air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport was understaffed on Wednesday evening when a passenger plane and a military helicopter collided in midair, according to a government report about the circumstances surrounding the disaster that killed 67 people and sparked renewed debate around the airport’s crowded airspace.”

It has also been reported this week that the serious understaffing of air traffic control towers nationwide is a result of DEI racial preference policies first enacted by the Obama Administration.

Image made using AI.

A FOX Business article on April 24, 2024, asserted, “FAA lawsuit claims agency discriminated against air traffic controller applicants on the basis of race - The FAA allegedly added a question rewarding applicants for doing poorly on test, to get more African American air traffic controller applicants.”

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who now serves as co-counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation based in Colorado, is leading efforts for a lawsuit that could set a new precedent and force companies to hire employees based on skills.

Laxalt said the lawsuit represents nearly 1,000 people who went to school to become air traffic controllers. . .

The individuals Laxalt represents passed the normal test right before the Obama administration said the class was too White and threw out the tests with the applicants.

“That’s the group of citizens we represent,” Laxalt said. “Their careers were derailed. Their lives were upended. So, it’s important we get justice for them, but obviously it’s important that cases like this highlight that these practices were going on in the federal government, and they can still be going on in any agency in America.”

The attorney pointed to an article from The Wall Street Journal that said the FAA was at 75% staffing for air traffic controllers across the country, constantly affecting travel plans for Americans.

The MSM immediately jumped to attack President Trump’s targeting of DEI as a possible contributing factor in Wednesday’s crash. A brief review of the record, as already published, gives the lie to these attacks.

On January 14, 2024, FOX News reported, “FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities.” Hold on to your hats here.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which says “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.” The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.

In response to the policies outlined above, in one of his first actions after he was sworn in for his second term in office, President Trump issued on January 22, 2025, a Presidential Memorandum described in a Fact Sheet” at the White House web site: “President Donald J. Trump Ends DEI Madness and Restores Excellence and Safety within the Federal Aviation Administration.”

FLIGHTS SHOULD BE SUPERVISED BY THE BEST EMPLOYEES: President Donald J. Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum terminating a Biden Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hiring policy that prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency.

  • This Presidential Memorandum orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.
  • It also requires the FAA Administrator to review the past performance and performance standards of all FAA employees in critical safety positions and make clear that any individual who fails to demonstrate adequate capability is replaced by someone who will ensure Americans’ flight safety and efficiency.

Yesterday, Newsweek reported:

On Thursday [January 30], Trump signed an executive order initiating the “Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety” in the wake of the Reagan National Airport disaster, which includes implementing only merit-based hiring.

The order stated the Biden administration “egregiously rejected” merit-based hiring and specifically recruited individuals with “severe intellectual” disabilities in the FAA.

(See also Did the FAA’s DIE requirements just end sixty-seven lives?)

Peter Barry Chowka (extensive new bio here) is a veteran investigative journalist who has been working for six decades in a variety of media, both mainstream and alternative. He is a regular contributor to the BBC in the UK. His most recent appearance on the BBC World Service international program Weekday on January 23, reporting about President Trump, can be accessed here.

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