Watch: Tucker Carlson Uncovered Devastating FAA Emails in 2018, Proved Obama Team Knew They Were Playing with Fire
Tucker Carlson had already unearthed proof back in 2018 that the Obama administration had placed a new emphasis on diversity over traditional hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration.
President Donald Trump suggested during a news briefing Thursday that the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342 with an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., may have had something to do with the lowering of standards for air traffic controllers that occurred first during the Obama administration and later during President Joe Biden’s time in office.
In June 2018, then-Fox News host Carlson covered the topic, saying, “The Obama administration pressured the FAA to meet abstract diversity goals. Now nobody bothered to explain why diversity is a relevant criterion for air traffic controllers. No one will explain it now.”
Carlson explained that the FAA added a biographical questionnaire to the air traffic controller application process, which he said gave more points to would-be controllers who lacked a scientific background or who had been unemployed for the previous three years than they did to licensed pilots.
“In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers. That is insane, and they knew it was insane when they did it, but they did it anyway,” he said.
In an email Carlson said he obtained, the executive who created the biographical questionnaire “admits that the test he devised has nothing to do with finding the best air traffic controllers. If you want good air traffic controllers, find people with experience. That was his advice. The FAA ignored this, and used the biographical screen anyway. … Compared to diversity, your safety meant nothing to them.”
The Washington Times editorial board also wrote about the topic in a February 2024 opinion piece following near misses at Reagan National, where Wednesday’s crash took place, and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The Times cited a 2013 FAA document titled “Controller Hiring by the Numbers,” which asked, “How much of a change in job performance is acceptable to achieve what diversity goals?”
The news outlet noted in 2012 that the FAA temporarily halted hiring of new controllers and replaced its race-blind hiring rules with a “Biographical Assessment” stratagem intended to hire more minorities.
Playing four or more sports in high school was worth 5 points in the survey, while holding a pilot’s license only earned an applicant 2 points.
“More than 3,000 top-performing, motivated applicants lost out because they weren’t members of this ethnic club,” the Times said.
Applicants who had scored well in the AT-SAT, which tests aptitude to be an air traffic controller, but not under the new “Biographical Assessment” sued.
“After Congress forced the FAA to drop the quiz in 2018, many former applicants reapplied and have since become controllers. Their careers were set back several years for no good reason,” the Times said.
In 2018, Carlson interviewed aviation attorney and former air traffic controller Michael Pearson, who represented plaintiffs in a suit against the FAA in 2015 on the new hiring criteria.
Pearson recounted, “In late 2011, early 2012, members of the National Black Controllers Association had a meeting with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jesse Jackson, and some high-level [Department of Transportation] and FAA officials. Michael Huerta [then head of the FAA] was part of those meetings. And right after that meeting, the FAA put an immediate hold on hiring. They stopped hiring.”
He verified what both Carlson and the Times reported regarding the biographical questionnaire: That it did not test actual aptitude and background to be a good air traffic controller.
“The creator actually notified the FAA of that, and they used it anyway. In effect, that test punished people with any aviation knowledge, any air traffic control experience, any aviation experience, any science experience,” Pearson said.
The attorney told Fox News Thursday night regarding the American Airlines crash, “This is a preventable disaster. The system has been under attack through the DEI and the FAA bowing to wokeness since 2010 — since the Obama administration.”
“The lack of staffing is directly attributable to the Obama administration,” he argued.
🚨 This is bad.
Fmr. Air Traffic Controller Michael Pearson: “This is a preventable disaster. The system has been under attack due to DEI and the FAA bowing to wokeness since 2010 — since the Obama administration.”
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 31, 2025
The cause of Wednesday’s crash is still under investigation, but one thing is certain: A return to common sense under Trump must — and no doubt, will — mean merit and ability will once again be the criteria for hiring air traffic controllers.
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