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IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS?Yes, not only is there a well documented shortage, but the shortage was exacerbated by DEI policies. * A 2023-2024 FAA workforce plan stated the agency was short 3,000 controllers to fill air traffic control stations and towers across the country. [a]* Per a 2023 report issued by the FAA and Dept of Transportation: - “FAA continues to face staffing challenges and lacks a plan to address them, which in turn poses a risk to the continuity of air traffic operations.“

- “We determined that 77 percent of critical facilities are staffed below the Agency's 85-percent threshold.”

- “FAA cannot ensure it will successfully train enough controllers in the short term.”

* In 2024 the FAA was sued in a class-action lawsuit by Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, for rejecting over 1,000 qualified/trained air traffic controller applicants who’d all passed their tests, simply because of their race (they were too white). They were rejected because hiring them wouldn’t fulfill the FAA’s DEI quotas established in the Obama era. [c]

* Additionally, “the FAA then created a new test that included a biographical section, which was supposed to help add more African Americans into the air traffic applicant pool. The biographical questionnaire is supposed to have asked many irrelevant questions, such as the test-taker’s worst college subject and how many sports they played in high school, awarding extra points for certain attributes that were unrelated to their status as qualified air traffic controllers.” [c]

* “Up to that point, during the 20 years before the Obama-era FAA, the Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) program graduated 100 percent of those who went on to work in their field. However, the aforementioned changes to the hiring process meant that many of these graduates began to be passed over in favor of applicants who had only graduated high school.” [c]

CONCLUSION:

There is indeed a shortage of necessary flight traffic coordinators, made worse via institutionalized racism against caucasians, violating not only the people’s trust, their need to prioritize safety and competence, but also in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race or gender amid the hiring process.

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Sources:

[a]

https://www.airlines.org/news-update/a4a-launches-staff-the-towers-campaign-urging-faa-to-increase-air-traffic-control-staffing/

https://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/default/files/FAA%20Controller%20Staffing%20and%20Training%20at%20Critical%20Facilities%20Final%20Report-06-21-23.pdf

[c]

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines-airports/lawsuit-alleges-racial-discrimination-by-faa-in-air-traffic-controller-hiring