Fox News Investigation Highlighted Practice That FAA Says Brings 'Diversity' To The Ranks Of Air Traffic Controllers

The media watchdog group Accuracy in Media has posted an editorial on its website saying major media outlets are ignoring a report by Fox News that followed a six-month investigation into the FAA's new procedure for hiring air traffic controllers.

The gist of the hiring practice is that gives so-called "off-the-street" hires the same opportunity as those who complete a program under the FAA's College Training Initiative (CIT) and score well on the Air Traffic Selection and Training exam, or AT-SAT ... or have previous military experience as a controller. The "off-the-street" candidates only have to complete an at-home online "Biographical Questionnaire", which is not proctored. Candidates have two weeks to complete the questionnaire.

AIM holds in its editorial that the Fox News investigation reveals complicity between groups such as the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE) and the FAA, a charge the NBCFAE refutes. Author Roger Arnoff says in his editorial that while there has been some acknowledgement of the story, and the practice, in other media outlets, those that do leave out details of what he calls corruption in the FAA or the link to policies in the Obama Administration.

Arnoff writes that in the Wall Street Journal story on the practice, the paper said that at least 28 controller applicants have made claims of discrimination against the FAA. One of those seeks class action status. The claimants hold that the FAA is discriminating against the group that completed training and scored well on the test in favor of minority applicants, "even though the earlier system wasn't found to have hampered them."

(FAA image of Air Traffic Control training center in Leesburg, VA)

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