Alleges Some Applicants Had Access To Test Answers

A six month investigation by Fox Business asserts that the FAA's new hiring practices for Air Traffic Controllers may be putting the flying public at risk, and alleges that some were given assistance in passing a test that led to a job as an air traffic controller.

Called "Trouble in the Skies," the report focuses on a recent shift in policy the FAA said was intended to "increase diversity" among the air traffic controller applicant pool. Among the findings of the report are such things as an early question on one of the initial application that asks how many sports in which a particular applicant  participated in high school.

The report says that 28,000 took the initial exam in 2014. That exam is administered at home on an applicant's personal computer. Of those, 1,591 were offered jobs, but the report also found some of those may have been given help by some working in the government's human resources department.

The FAA determined as far back as the early 1990s that it would need to hire as many as 1,000 near air traffic controllers per year to keep up with retirements and other attrition. But in 2013, it began rejecting some applicants that had been judged to be "well qualified" that had graduated from accredited schools offering ATC programs and had scored high on a required test. The FAA told thousands to "start over," and that it would not consider education, degrees, or previous military experience. Instead, they would compete with thousands more of what the agency categorized as "off the street" hires who are U.S. citizens, have a high school diploma, speak English, and can pass the FAA's new Biographical Questionnaire (BQ) ... which is where the questions about high school sports and other similar aspects of an applicant's life are assessed.

All of this points to the safety of the traveling public, the report says. A paper co-authored by a researcher FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma concluded that more of those who had completed an accredited program went on to become Certified Professional Controllers" than the "off the street" hires, but the FAA called the report "inconclusive" and would not allow Dr. Dana Broach, one of the authors, to speak with Fox Business.

Congress has also asked questions about the hiring practices, but the FAA has not yet fully responded to those concerns, the report says. Congressman Randy Hultgren (R-IL) said of the new procedure "You might get lucky in finding a few people that are qualified and able to do this, but again what I’ve seen from CTI programs, you’ve got passionate people willing to commit themselves.”

Hultgren has cosponsored a bill to force the FAA to get rid of the "BQ" and restore preferred hiring for those who graduate from Collegiate Training Initiative, or CTI programs. But Fox Business reports that the FAA is holding its ground, saying the applicants selected through the BQ process have the "highest probability of success in the FAA's rigorous air traffic controller training process."

(Image from file for illustration purposes)

FMI: Original Story