President Trump has suggested, without evidence, that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are to blame for the deadly plane collision outside of Washington, D.C. CBS News Confirmed executive producer Melissa Mahtani breaks down the standards and training air traffic controllers need to meet to get the job.

Washington

A regional jet carrying 64 people collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC.

D.C. Crash

President Trump has voiced concerns over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, linking them without evidence to a recent plane collision near Washington, D.C. The collision resulted in the loss of 67 lives. Trump emphasized the need for exceptionally talented individuals in air traffic control roles, suggesting that current hiring practices are focusing on diversity over qualifications. However, experts contest these claims.

Nick Daniels, President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, highlighted the extensive and rigorous training process required to become an air traffic controller. This process evaluates candidates based on performance through a series of assessments, such as mental and physical fitness tests, without discrimination based on sex, race, or gender.

Melissa Mahtani, Executive Producer for CBS News, noted that an ongoing investigation is seeking the real cause of the crash. As of now, there is no evidence linking DEI initiatives to the recent air traffic incident. She also clarified misinformation regarding FAA hiring practices, stressing that all candidates must meet high competency standards regardless of diversity considerations. Changes to the recruitment process, initially instituted during the Obama administration, aimed to diversify candidate pools in anticipation of staffing shortages due to retirement.

Trump's reference to a biographical questionnaire introduced by the Obama administration was intended to broaden the recruitment process but faced criticism for possibly excluding qualified individuals. Although the questionnaire's use was rolled back prior to Trump’s presidency, diversity initiatives continued, including the Aviation Development Program implemented during Trump's tenure, which included support for trainees with targeted disabilities.

This discussion reflects broader tensions regarding DEI initiatives, notably intensified following social justice movements, such as those inspired by the murder of George Floyd. The intertwining of political narratives with air traffic safety standards remains a complex and contentious issue.



What standards do air traffic controllers have to meet?

President Trump suggested Thursday without evidence that diversity initiatives may have been the cause of the deadly plane collision that killed 67 people near Washington. The president emphasized the need for highly talented geniuses in air traffic control towers instead of, quote, regular people. But the path to becoming an air traffic controller is anything but regular. Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said on CBS Mornings it takes several years of extensive training to become an air traffic controller, regardless of sex, race, or gender. Melissa Matani joins us now. She's the executive producer of our CBS News Confirmed team. So is there any evidence, Melissa, that DEI is to blame here or even played a part here? Lindsay, this is an ongoing investigation. We have no idea yet what the actual cause is, but there is no evidence to show that DEI has in any way compromised air aviation safety or has anything to do with the crash. What we do know is that air traffic controllers need to meet very rigorous standards. They go through extensive training, and this includes a mental fitness test, a physical fitness test. They cannot have a history of a mental disability. They cannot have any type of physical condition that would impair them from doing their job. So when President Trump was at the podium, he was reading this list of limited disabilities that were on the FAA's website, and he made it sound like somebody with one of those conditions could be an air traffic controller. The website didn't say that, and you have to remember that the FAA hires for a wide range of jobs, but most importantly, anybody hired for a job needs to be qualified to do that job regardless of their race, gender, age, and all the other things that you mentioned that fall underneath this DEI umbrella. It's sort of the crux of the argument surrounding DEI is essentially you're assuming that people who are in those roles don't deserve to be there, and that's not fair or true. We mentioned President Trump's criticism of previous administrations and their management of the FAA. Let's go ahead and listen to some of that. A group within the FAA, another story, determined that the workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. This was in the Obama administration just prior to my getting there. What is he referring to? So Trump seems to be referring to a biographical questionnaire, which was instated under the Obama administration, and this was really designed to widen the recruitment pool for air traffic controllers, and it was partly in response to a study that was done that showed there could be a shortage of air traffic controllers in the decade to come because the people in those current jobs were reaching retirement age. So this biographical questionnaire was instated, and then it got some pushback from people because it was a prerequisite before you could then do a skills-based test. So some people said it excluded people who were potentially qualified. So in 2016, still under the Obama administration, I'd like to point out, Congress did a partial rollback of this, but it was in 2018 that it was removed from the FAA's website and from their program, and that seems to be what Trump is taking credit for, although that's slightly misleading because it started before he was president. Well, and new diversity initiatives were also started under the Trump administration, right? So why is there such an outcry about DEI now? Well, Lindsay, this is so important because in 2019, under the Trump administration, a new policy was started, as you said, and it was called the Aviation Development Program, and it specifically allowed people with targeted disabilities, so that long list that Trump was reading, to gain experience as an air traffic control student trainee. This is the exact type of program that Trump seems to now be railing against, but it was started underneath him, and he now wants to distance himself. To answer your question about why there's a backlash, you have to remember that recently, after the protests after the murder of George Floyd, there was this wide push to get people into positions, like a wide diversity push to get people into executive positions, and with this push came a big backlash, and it's become a big rallying cry for many people, especially on the right. Okay, Melissa Mattani, thank you, as always.

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