A Southwest Airlines flight headed from Denver, CO, to Houston, TX, had to make an emergency landing on Sunday after the cover ripped off one of the plane&#8217;s engines, striking the wing flap.
Pilots on the Boeing 737-800 informed air traffic control at the Denver International Airport that &#8220;several passengers and flight attendants heard something loud hit the wing,&#8221; after which the plane was cleared to make a safe emergency landing.
Video of the moment the engine cover ripped away made the rounds on X on Sunday.
ABC News transportation reporter Sam Sweeney shared one clip, commenting, &#8220;Scary moments for passengers on a Southwest flight from Denver to Houston when the engine cover ripped off during flight, forcing the plane to return to Denver Sunday morning.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Scary moments for passengers on a Southwest flight from Denver to Houston when the engine cover ripped off during flight , forcing the plane to return to Denver Sunday morning. <a href="https://t.co/BBpCBXpTsl">pic.twitter.com/BBpCBXpTsl</a>
&mdash; Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SweeneyABC/status/1777018698345120211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In another clip, shared by Mike Sington, a pilot could be heard talking to air traffic control about the loose engine cowling, and passengers could be heard saying, &#8220;There it goes,&#8221; and, &#8220;There goes the rest of it,&#8221; as the cover broke loose and flew out of sight.
Southwest Airlines addressed the incident in a statement to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/07/business/southwest-boeing-737-800-engine/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>, saying, &#8220;We apologize for the inconvenience of their delay but place our highest priority on ultimate Safety for our Customers and Employees.&#8221;
The passengers on the affected flight were transported to Houston on a different plane, and were delayed by several hours.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, an investigation into the incident is pending. No injuries were reported.
Sunday&#8217;s mishap is just the latest in a string of issues plaguing Boeing, including one incident involving an external panel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/united-airlines-boeing-737-loses-external-panel-mid-air" target="_blank" rel="noopener">falling off</a> as a United Airlines flight was in midair en route from San Francisco to Oregon. The flight crew in that case was not aware the panel had torn free until after they landed.

Southwest

Southwest Flight Forced To Make Emergency Landing After Engine Cover Rips Off

Air Travel

Airplane

Boeing

Southwest Airlines

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/house-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans</a> have introduced a long-shot bill that would rename one of the major airports in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area after former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), who is the chief deputy whip of the House GOP, announced on Tuesday that he was leading the endeavor to rename Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia as the Donald J. Trump International Airport.
“As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity, and strength than hearing &#8216;Welcome to Trump International Airport&#8217; as they land on American soil,&#8221; Reschenthaler <a href="https://reschenthaler.house.gov/media/press-releases/reschenthaler-introduces-bill-to-rename-the-washington-dulles-international-airport-as-the-donald-j-trump-international-airport" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
The <a href="https://reschenthaler.house.gov/imo/media/doc/donald_trump_international_airport_bill_text.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two-page bill</a> has several GOP <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7845/cosponsors?s=1&amp;r=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-sponsors</a>, including Reps. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Troy Nehls (R-TX), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Barry Moore (R-AL), and Mike Waltz (R-FL).
Other than the name designation, the bill says any &#8220;reference in any law, regulation, map, document, paper, or other record of the United States&#8221; to the airport shall be considered a reference to &#8220;Donald J. Trump International Airport.&#8221;
Trump is in the middle of seeking another term in the White House and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-locks-up-gop-nomination-after-racking-up-4-more-primary-victories" target="_blank" rel="noopener">garnered</a> enough delegates to clinch the GOP nomination after his last primary rival, Nikki Haley, suspended her campaign.
Although the GOP is largely rallying behind Trump&#8217;s candidacy, the bill faces long odds. In the House, Republicans have a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/slim-house-gop-majority-takes-a-hit-with-dem-winning-contest-to-replace-santos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slim</a> majority. Democrats control the Senate, while President Joe Biden, who is also running for a second term, is the current occupant of the White House.
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&#8220;This idea is ridiculous, but sadly real,&#8221; Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat running for Virginia governor, <a href="https://twitter.com/SpanbergerForVA/status/1775166784963805627" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X. &#8220;Congress must act on pressing issues like reauthorizing the FAA and passing the national security supplemental. Yet this is what a Member of House Republican leadership focuses on — renaming Virginia’s Dulles airport after Trump.&#8221;
Dulles Airport, which <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/dulles-airport-celebrates-60-year-anniversary-john-f-kennedy-dedication-groundbreaking-airport-jet-airplanes-architect-eero-saarinen-metro-silver-line-extension-richard-golinowski" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrated</a> its 60th anniversary in 2022, was <a href="https://www.flydulles.com/about-airport/history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">named after</a> Secretary of State John Foster Dulles who served under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is one of three major airports in the D.C. area, along with Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Former President Donald Trump

House Republicans Propose Renaming Dulles Airport After Trump

airport

Congress

Donald Trump

House Republicans

Politics

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington D.C.

At least two people have died after a private jet attempted to make an emergency landing on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> interstate Friday afternoon and instead collided with a car and crashed.
&#8220;A Bombardier Challenger 600 jet crashed on Highway I-75 near Naples, Florida, around 3:15 p.m. local time Friday, Feb. 9,&#8221; the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement. &#8220;Five people were on board.&#8221;
&#8220;The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide any updates.&#8221;
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a statement posted to social media that at least two people were killed in the crash.
&#8220;The Federal Aviation Administration has closed a large section of Interstate 75 in Collier County to investigate the crash of an aircraft with two confirmed fatalities,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;Southbound traffic is closed at the 111 Mile Marker (Immokalee Road) and northbound traffic is closed at the 105 Mile Marker (Golden Gate Parkway). The closure is expected to last for an extended period of time.&#8221;
The sheriff&#8217;s office urged people to find alternate routes and avoid the area.
CNN reported that tracking data showed that the plane took off from Ohio State University Airport early Friday afternoon and was headed toward Naples Airport when it crashed.
The report added that shortly before the plane crashed, a pilot radioed air traffic control to report that the plane had suffered a catastrophic event.
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“Lost both engines. Emergency,” the pilot said. “Make an emergency landing.”
The plane was close enough to the airport that an air traffic controller cleared the plane to land.
“Cleared to land, but we’re not going make the runway,” the pilot responded.
Robin King, the director of communication with the Naples Airport Authority, said: &#8220;It was coming in for a landing. We received word that it had possibly lost an engine, we have not confirmed that. Then we lost contact.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Plane crashes, bursts into flames on I-75 near Naples" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pFS-ZJtgUQg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Plane Florida

Private Jet Crashes On Florida Interstate; At Least 2 Killed

Airplane crash

Florida

General

U.S.

An air traffic controller has been harshly criticized for telling a veteran pilot that she knew better than he did about how to land the plane because she “googled it.”
Brenda Mooney, an air traffic controller at Denton Enterprise Airport in Texas, was reportedly caught on a recording advising the pilot, who said he had been flying for 15 years, with her Google-derived information. Here’s the exchange:
<blockquote>
Mooney: Cherokee 65C, there’s traffic on the parallel. The traffic you’re following is inside Highway 380, a Cherokee on final for 18L.
Pilot: All right, we’re looking for that traffic to follow for 65 Charlie, and if we could plan on the next one, if possible we could get a short approach. We’d appreciate it.
Mooney: Cherokee 65 Charlie, I have your request. Your traffic is about a half mile final now.
Pilot: We’ve got ‘em in sight, 65 Charlie.
Mooney: Cherokee 65 Charlie, give him room, he’s a full stop.
Pilot: Runway 18L, cleared the option. We’ll give him room. 65 Charlie.
Mooney: 7 Papa Echo, turn your base. Cessna 2 Bravo Tango, 65 Charlie, you should have turned your base before you hit the approach end of the runway. You’re outside the airport traffic area.
Pilot: We’re on about a 1/4 mile final, ma’am. I mean, sorry, base.
Mooney: Yeah, I know. You should be inside the airport. You should have turned your base abeam the numbers.
Pilot: We can’t do that and land on the 1,000 footers.
Mooney: Well, that’s what a short approach is.
Pilot: I’m sorry, I guess I should —‚ we need to come up with something different because in order to complete a commercial checkride we gotta do what’s called a power-off 180°. We pull the power abeam where you want to touch down and have to land on that point and no more than 200 feet beyond it.
Mooney: That’s fine, but don’t ask for a short approach if you’re gonna do a power-off 180°. That’s my point.
Pilot: Well, okay. I will remember that from now on. No problem.
Mooney: When you ask for a short approach, I expect you to turn your base abeam the numbers.
Pilot: This is gonna be a full stop for 65 Charlie, and maybe we need to talk about that some more because you’re the first controller in 15 years that’s ever said that.
Mooney:, I’m just, you know, if you ask for a short approach, a short approach is when you turn your base abeam the numbers. If I know you’re a student asking for a short approach, I know you’re out there practicing and you probably will extend. But if you’re doing something other than a short approach, don’t ask for a short approach.
Pilot: Well, I will definitely look up the definition of short approach because I’ve never seen where it says you turn base abeam the numbers, cause I don’t see how you could possibly do that.
Mooney: Well, I googled it, actually. I googled short approach and it said to turn your base abeam or before the numbers and you will land, probably, touch down around midfield.
Pilot: Okay, well, then I apologize for requesting the wrong thing, because everywhere else short approach means power-off 180°, but that’s definitely not what it means here.
Mooney: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve worked at different airports, I don’t know. But just ask for what you need so I know what you wanna do so I can accommodate.
</blockquote>
A <a href="https://www.change.org/p/demand-the-removal-of-brenda-mooney-from-air-traffic-control-at-kdto-airport">petition</a> was launched to get Mooney removed from her position; it stated, “Her actions are not only jeopardizing pilot safety but also damaging the reputation of our city, Denton. It has reached a point where her conduct is attracting national attention &#8211; an unfortunate circumstance that does not reflect well on our community.&#8221;
One commenter on the YouTube video of the incident stated, “Been flying for 25 years, 3000 hrs. Never had a controller expect a short approach to mean &#8216;turn base at the numbers.’ That&#8217;s absurd.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BxbF638gCYQ?si=wzPD5Grj6usOMg0d" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

In this photo illustration the American multinational

‘I Googled It’: Air Traffic Controller Dragged For Telling Veteran Pilot How To Land

Google

“<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/big-bang">Big Bang Theory</a>” actress Kaley Cuoco recalled a recent experience she had on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/air-travel">flight</a>, saying a fellow passenger made a disparaging remark about her 9-month-old daughter, Matilda.
The 38-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">TV star</a> discussed what happened during a Monday appearance on the late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” per <a href="https://pagesix.com/2024/01/09/parents/kaley-cuoco-almost-strangled-woman-who-judged-her-parenting-on-daughters-first-flight/">Page Six</a>.
“It was our first flight ever with this baby, which is terrifying. We were very terrified,” Cuoco told Kimmel. 
“I thought, ‘What do we do? We have to bring her sound machine on the plane. It’s the only thing she can go to sleep to,” the actress continued, noting how Matilda was very fussy before she eventually fell asleep. “So she’s crying. It was hard,” she said. “She finally falls asleep and the sound machine is on and we were finally like [sighs].”
Shortly after the baby fell asleep, Cuoco said a flight attendant came over and said another passenger had requested that she turn off the sound machine. 
“I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh, my God,&#8217;” she said. “I can feel Tom be like, ‘Hey, ask the passenger if she wants to hold our screaming child when we turn it [off],&#8217;” she continued, describing her boyfriend Tom Pelphrey’s reaction. “The ice went into his veins,” she added.
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Cuoco said she eventually figured out who complained. 
“It was the woman right in front of us [who complained],” the actress said. Next, she described what happened when Matilda woke up in a better mood. “The lady turns around and goes, ‘Oh, so your daughter does know how to smile.&#8217;”
This revelation made the “Kimmel” audience collectively gasp. 
“It was in that moment where I understood why women end up on ‘Dateline,&#8217;” Cuoco went on. “I could have strangled [her]…I could’ve thrown that woman off the plane.”
The Emmy Award nominee said that babies should be more accepted in society. 
“You see all these things on social media where people are really, truly getting mad at these babies,” Cuoco said. “Like, justice for babies!” she added. “This is ridiculous … leave them alone!”

Kaley Cuoco

‘Big Bang Theory’ Actress Says She ‘Could Have Strangled’ Passenger On Recent Flight For Comment About Her Baby

'Big Bang Theory' Actress Says She 'Could Have Strangled' Passenger On Recent Flight For Comment About Her Baby

babies

Celebrities

Entertainment

Passengers are recalling a nightmare <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/air-travel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alaska Airlines</a> flight on its way to California that suffered an emergency depressurizing situation when a chunk of the plane&#8217;s body was blown out.
Following an emergency landing, there were thankfully no serious injuries, though a child near the blown off portion had to be held down by his mother, and his shirt was sucked out of the plane and his skin was reddened from the fierce wind, one passenger <a href="https://www.kptv.com/2024/01/06/plane-window-blows-out-mid-air-makes-emergency-landing-portland-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> KPTV.
“I open up my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me,” a 22-year-old passenger named Vi Nguyen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/business/alaska-airlines-flight-portland-landing.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times. “And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone.”
“The first thing I thought was, ‘I’m going to die,’” she added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When the wall of the plane just breaks off mid flight <a href="https://twitter.com/AlaskaAir?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AlaskaAir</a> <a href="https://t.co/pMWhpiHmFY">pic.twitter.com/pMWhpiHmFY</a>
&mdash; Kyle Rinker (@Kyrinker) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kyrinker/status/1743470896638300339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Portland approach, Alaska 1282 emergency! Aircraft is now leveling 12,000 in a left turn heading three four zero,” the pilot said during the flight, according to KPTV.
There were reportedly more than 170 passengers on the flight and six crew members.
One of the passengers posted video of the incident and suggests it was not the emergency door that was blown off the plane, as some other reports have <a href="https://katu.com/news/local/alaska-airlines-flight-1282-returns-to-pdx-after-a-depressurization-just-after-takeoff-boeing-737-max#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a>. Narrating the video, the passenger adds that, thankfully, no one was sitting directly next to the blow off portion, which she identifies as a &#8220;window.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing last night after a panel blew out shortly after takeoff. Thankfully, no serious injuries were reported.
The airline has temporarily grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft. <a href="https://t.co/tgnGe8thrI">pic.twitter.com/tgnGe8thrI</a>
&mdash; Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorningBrew/status/1743635259168632864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Following the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily ordered U.S. airlines to stop using some Boeing 737 Max 9 planes, the Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/business/alaska-airlines-flight-portland-landing.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>.
“Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal said in a statement. “We agree with and fully support the F.A.A.’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane.”
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Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said such aircrafts &#8220;will be returned to service only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections.”
“We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available,&#8221; Minicucci&#8217;s statement said.
“My heart goes out to those who were on this flight – I am so sorry for what you experienced. I am so grateful for the response of our pilots and flight attendants,” he added.
Alaska Airlines is investigating the incident and said it will release more details as it learns more.

‘I’m Going To Die’: Alaska Airlines Makes Emergency Landing After Chunk Of Plane Blown Out On Nightmare Flight

Airlines

California

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transgender</a> actor claimed that he suffered a &#8220;human rights violation&#8221; late last week after being &#8220;misgendered&#8221; by a Delta Airlines employee.
Tommy Dorfman, a man who claims that he is a woman, was the person allegedly holding the camera at New York-LaGuardia International Airport (LGA) when he says that an employee with Delta Airlines misgendered him.
In the video, Dorfman complains that he was “misgendered” because the airline employee called him a “he.”
“It wasn’t intentional, but if you want to take it personal, that’s also okay,” the employee responded.
Dorfman continued by complaining that another woman “intentionally” misgendered him twice.
“You’re being condescending and if you want to continue, I have full authority to escort you out the building right this moment if you want to play that game with me,” the employee fired back. “Would you like to continue three days before Christmas? I really don’t mind.”
“I’m good,” Dorfman responded.
Dorfman claims that he was the victim of a &#8220;human rights violation&#8221; because of the incident.
&#8220;When you try to advocate for yourself at @delta and are met with even more transphobia and threats of being arrested at LaGuardia,&#8221; Dorfman wrote in a now-deleted social media post.
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&#8220;Tristan, the employee, said he was fine with me posting this,&#8221; Dorfman continued. &#8220;Didn’t realize it was condescending to flag a human rights violation after another employee misgendered me incessantly.&#8221;
Delta said that it was “aware of the video and looking into the matter, including reaching out to our customer to understand more about what occurred.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A Delta Airlines employee is forced to deal with a transgender bully who tries to force him into submission by forcing him to use their preferred pronouns. He maintains his professionalism throughout the encounter. <a href="https://t.co/rWFjVCEAQ3">pic.twitter.com/rWFjVCEAQ3</a>
&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1739856795668258951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tommy Dorfman

Transgender Actor Claims It Was A ‘Human Rights Violation’ That Airline Employee Misgendered Him

Transgender Actor Claims It Was A 'Human Rights Violation' That Airline Employee Misgendered Him

Delta Airlines

Social Issues

Transgender

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southwest-airlines">Southwest Airlines</a> is going viral for their company-wide “<a href="https://www.southwest.com/help/booking/extra-seat-policy">Customer of Size</a>” policy, which allows overweight <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/air-travel">travelers</a> to potentially get extra seats for free if they don’t fit.
The policy states that customers who “encroach upon any part of the neighboring seat(s)” may purchase however many extra seats they need. Those passengers can then request a refund after travel, <a href="https://www.southwest.com/help/booking/extra-seat-policy">according</a> to their website.
Southwest says the policy isn’t focused on just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/obesity">weight</a>, but applies to anyone who doesn’t fit in the seat because of their body type. The space is determined by the placement of armrests. 
“The armrest is considered to be the definitive boundary between seats,” the policy says. “If you’re unable to lower both armrests and/or encroach upon any portion of a seat next to you, you need a second seat. Our policy does not focus on weight.”
“The purchase of additional seats serves as a notification of a special seating need and allows us to adequately plan for the number of occupied seats onboard,&#8221; the policy continues. “It also helps us ensure we can accommodate all customers on the flight for which they purchased a ticket and avoid asking customers to relinquish their seats for unplanned accommodation.”
A TikTok influencer named Kimmy Garris, who calls herself a “fat solo traveler,” posted a video of herself boarding a Southwest plane in October and asking about their policy for overweight passengers. The customer service agent can be seen giving Garris an extra ticket, which the TikTok user said “should be the industry norm.”
But unlike Garris, many social media users were annoyed by the policy. 
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“Rewarding bad behavior. Society is regressing,” one person <a href="https://twitter.com/lifegripper/status/1735704204675776818">wrote</a>.
“Fat supremacy in action,” another commenter agreed.
Many comments questioned whether tall travelers would get extra perks as well.
“I presume this means that tall people will be upgraded to Business Select class for free, then, [SouthwestAir]?” another person <a href="https://twitter.com/Hilohaw/status/1735696866321600721">asked</a>.
Most social media users worried that the airline giving away free seats to certain passengers would result in ticket prices going up for everyone else.

Southwest Trashed For ‘Customer Of Size’ Policy Which Gives Free Seats To Overweight Travelers

Southwest Trashed For 'Customer of Size' Policy Which Gives Free Seats To Overweight Travelers

Obesity

Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine one of your buddies comes up to you with a big smile on his face and tells you he just got a brand-new job. He&#8217;s vague on the specifics, but he says it&#8217;s a federal government gig that pays six figures. It didn&#8217;t require any kind of bachelor or associate degree, or a physical fitness test. But your friend does tell you that, as part of the application process, he had to complete a couple of computer exams.
Then, as the conversation goes on, your friend recounts a few of the questions from one of those exams. He tells you the questions went something like this: &#8220;Would more classmates remember you as humble or dominant? What age did you first start making money? How many high school sports did you participate in?&#8221;
At this point, you&#8217;re thinking to yourself, this is a little odd. What kind of job would ask questions like this? This all sounds kind of dumb and unserious. So your friend reassures you that he had to complete a second test as well. This second test asked slightly more <a href="https://www.tsatestprep.com/atsa-practice-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">challenging questions</a>, like, &#8220;What&#8217;s the difference between the numbers 8 and 6?&#8221; If you answered &#8220;2,&#8221; then congratulations, you could also pass this test.
Now, at this point, if you had to guess what job your friend just landed, what guess would you make? Based on all of the information provided, and knowing this is a government job, what would you think? Well, you’d probably make some obvious assumptions right away. You&#8217;d think, at a minimum, that whatever job your friend is gunning for in the federal government, it can&#8217;t be that important. And, indeed, there are a lot of very unimportant jobs in the federal government. Jobs that were made for incompetent and unimpressive people. Maybe your friend got a gig in the Department of Education, for example, or the IRS. That would make sense.
But then imagine that your friend informs you that he is not working in some frivolous government agency that contributes nothing of value to humanity. Imagine he tells you that, in act, he applied to be an air traffic controller. And after just a few months of training, very soon, he&#8217;s probably going to be directing planes with hundreds of people onboard. This may be a hypothetical thought experiment, but it is very much grounded in reality. I didn&#8217;t make up any of the test questions I mentioned earlier. They&#8217;re all based on real air traffic control <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/06/27/the-disastrous-initiative-to-hire-air-traffic-controllers-based-on-diversity-not-talent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exams</a> or <a href="https://www.tsatestprep.com/atsa-practice-test/#atsa-memory-game" target="_blank" rel="noopener">practice exams</a>.
Now ten years ago, this little hypothetical scenario would&#8217;ve been unthinkable. But everything changed very quickly in 2013, when the Obama administration <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/06/27/the-disastrous-initiative-to-hire-air-traffic-controllers-based-on-diversity-not-talent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embarked</a> on a plan to diversify the ranks of air traffic controllers. Obama&#8217;s FAA chief announced that he intended to &#8220;transform&#8221; the agency, which includes air traffic control, into a, &#8220;more diverse&#8221; workplace. As part of that plan, air traffic controllers no longer needed to take a more demanding cognitive assessment before being hired. Instead, all they needed was a high school diploma and the ability to speak English. All of the tests were dumbed down to the point of being absurd.
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The result, over the past decade, has been exactly what you&#8217;d expect. The number of air traffic controllers who are not white men has significantly increased, according to the FAA. Coincidentally, so have the number of near-collisions involving commercial airlines. According to a database maintained by NASA, which relies on data self-reported by pilots, the number of &#8220;near misses&#8221; has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/21/business/airline-safety-close-calls.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than doubled</a> over the past ten years. 
In just the past year, there have been more than 300 near misses involving commercial airlines, averaging more than five per week. Just to emphasize that point again: they diversified the FAA, and near-misses immediately doubled. Correlation does not prove causation, but it can point towards it. And in this case there is a giant, glowing sign pointing in that direction.
Of course, only a handful of these incidents receive any major media attention. So it&#8217;s easy to underestimate the scale of the problem, no matter what media outlets or social media platforms you frequent. That&#8217;s why, in a moment I&#8217;m going to go through some of the near-misses that have gotten very little coverage.
But I&#8217;ll start with an incident that did get some attention from the national news media, because it helps put the broader problem into some context. This incident happened in July, when air traffic controllers put two aircraft — an Allegiant air passenger plane and a Gulfstream jet — on a collision course, shortly after the Allegiant plane took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Allegiant plane avoids mid-air collision at 23,000 feet" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3k2j31B3Dak?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The report goes on to mention that the pilot&#8217;s last-minute evasive maneuver was so extreme that it sent one flight attendant to the hospital.
If there&#8217;s anything reassuring in this clip — something that might make you feel a little better if you, like me, plan on boarding a plane in the near future — it’s that automated software called &#8220;TCAS&#8221; saved the day. This is a system that relies on transponders that are installed on all domestic aircraft. As you heard, it&#8217;s capable of sounding an alarm in the cockpit, and directing planes away from one another if there&#8217;s a risk of an imminent collision. It&#8217;s a failsafe for when air traffic controllers mess up and command planes to fly into one another.
But TCAS isn&#8217;t perfect. It certainly doesn&#8217;t prevent all mid-air collisions. In 2002, for example, a passenger jet and a DHL cargo plane <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_%C3%9Cberlingen_mid-air_collision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collided</a> over Germany, because one pilot followed TCAS while another listened to the Swiss air traffic controller — who, incidentally, was later murdered by a surviving family member of several passengers. In fact, just this year, TCAS failed to prevent a mid-air collision at an international airport in this country — Houston Hobby. Fortunately, and miraculously, no one died as a result of that collision, but it was very close to being disastrous.
This incident illustrates the obvious, which is that the failsafe is not capable of solving all mid-air collisions, nor is it designed to. Particularly when planes are close to the ground, and covering a lot of ground very quickly in close proximity to one another, things can happen too quickly for the system to respond.
Those are the kind of incidents that are happening more and more often. A month ago, at Portland International Airport, for example, an Alaska Airlines jet turned directly into the path of a departing Skywest airliner. Air traffic controllers didn&#8217;t notice this until the planes were right on top of each other. In that case, the Alaska plane was trying to land, but it had to execute a &#8220;go around&#8221; because of high winds. Around the same time, the air traffic controller tells a departing Skywest plane to turn right. But for some reason, the Alaska pilot responds to that command, and turns to the right — straight into the path of the Skywest plane. And the controller completely misses it until pretty much the last possible moment. Radar data shows that the planes came within 250 feet vertically and less than 2,000 feet horizontally.
An even closer near-miss took place in August at San Diego International Airport. Controllers cleared a private plane to land right on top of a Southwest plane. They noticed their mistake just before the private plane hit the Southwest jet on the runway. The plane got within 100 feet of the Southwest passenger jet. There&#8217;s no TCAS system that can prevent something like that, either. If the visibility had been worse, and if the controllers didn&#8217;t notice the problem, there would have been a collision. Hundreds of people would likely be dead.
You can go to YouTube and find many clips showing these near misses. We won’t review all of them here, but I do want to share one that may be the most shocking recent example. It&#8217;s from JFK airport in New York City earlier this month, which is one of the busiest airports in the world. An American Airlines passenger jet was lining up for its approach, when air traffic controllers told a small private plane to line up for a parallel runway. But the private plane didn&#8217;t follow that instruction. Instead it made a beeline for the same runway the American Airlines plane was going for. At no point in this process did controllers notice the problem. They also didn&#8217;t notice that the private plane didn&#8217;t read back the right clearance. Instead, the only person who noticed anything wrong were the pilots of the American Airlines jet, when the private plane was right on top of them:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="“If we hadn’t bailed out, we would have collided”. American A321 has problems at New York. Real ATC" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-2XVD2yIDww?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;If we hadn&#8217;t bailed out, we would have collided.&#8221; That&#8217;s what the pilot of an American Airlines Airbus said, just a couple of weeks ago, at JFK airport. There was apparently no TCAS instruction to take evasive action. (If there had been, the pilots should have called it out. But they didn&#8217;t.) There was certainly no ATC warning. One of the pilots just looked out his window, or maybe saw something on his screen, and realized a plane was coming right for him. And he realized it just in time, to save a lot of lives.
I could go on and on. There&#8217;s the Southwest Airlines flight on July 2nd, which had to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/21/business/airline-safety-close-calls.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abort</a> its landing at New Orleans International Airport because a Delta plane was taking off from the same runway. The passenger planes came within seconds of hitting each other. That same month, an American Airlines plane nearly crashed into a Frontier Airlines jet on takeoff, because nobody — including the ground controllers — noticed that the nose of the Frontier Airlines jet was jutting out into the runway. Earlier this year, in February, an air traffic controller routed a Spirit Airlines flight within 200 vertical feet and 700 horizontal feet of a cargo plane. You get the point.
It&#8217;s true that we can&#8217;t blame this dramatic rise of near-misses solely on diversity and equity efforts, single-variable explanations are rarely sufficient. This is a complex issue. For one thing, when Ronald Reagan fired more than 10,000 air traffic controllers who went on strike in 1981, in violation of federal law, a bunch of new controllers needed to be hired. And many of those controllers recently hit retirement age — all at once. That creates a staffing crunch. That&#8217;s all true.
But that staffing crunch was foreseeable. It&#8217;s been obvious it would happen since Reagan fired the controllers more than four decades ago. The problem is that, instead of providing incentives for competent people to become air traffic controllers — say, by raising the salary, and providing more training and offering better hours — the government chose to do what it always does. It drastically lowered standards, in the name of equity. 
And the Biden administration is still proud of it. Right now, on the FAA&#8217;s <a href="https://www.faa.gov/jobs/diversity_inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>, you&#8217;ll find this line: 
<blockquote>The mission of the FAA involves securing the skies of a diverse nation. It only makes sense that the workforce responsible for that mission reflects the nation that it serves.</blockquote>
Actually, that doesn&#8217;t make sense at all. The job of the FAA, and air traffic control, is preventing catastrophic accidents where a lot of people die. It doesn&#8217;t matter what the workforce looks like. Everyone knows this, because deep down, everyone knows that diversity doesn’t matter. That’s why no passenger on a plane has ever cared in the slightest about the racial makeup of the guys in the cockpit, or the ones on the ground directing the plane. Just like nobody has ever cared about the diversity of fire departments when they’re trapped in a burning building, and nobody has ever cared about diversity among brain surgeons when they have a tumor that needs to be removed. 
When it comes down to it, when it really matters, diversity doesn’t matter. And we all know it. 
But that&#8217;s all the FAA has been focused on lately. Just a year ago, the FAA <a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-launches-be-atc-campaign-recruit-next-diverse-generation-air-traffic-controllers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> yet another initiative to &#8220;diversify&#8221; the ranks of air traffic controllers — meaning to hire people based on qualities other than competence. The FAA calls this the &#8220;Be ATC&#8221; campaign. The agency says in a press release that: 
<blockquote>Building on last year’s successful campaign to receive more applications from women and other underrepresented groups, the FAA will again work with diverse organizations, host Instagram Live conversations, and work with social media influencers.</blockquote>
That&#8217;s what the FAA is working on right now. We&#8217;ll be getting more women and more &#8220;underrepresented groups,&#8221; courtesy of Instagram influencers. That much is clear. What&#8217;s not clear is whether we&#8217;ll be getting a workforce that&#8217;s capable of preventing two jetliners, full of passengers from colliding with one another while they&#8217;re each going in excess of 500 miles per hour. And that&#8217;s alarming, to say the least, because every single week we&#8217;re discovering that the existing crop of air traffic controllers is barely capable of doing that.
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Keep in mind that this is all happening even as airlines also begin their own quest to add more equity to their ranks. It was only a couple of years ago that United Airlines pledged to diversify its pilots. Many other airlines have followed suit. Soon we will have diverse air traffic controllers directing diverse airline pilots, while thousands of lives hang in the balance — and inevitably many are lost in the process.
You often hear aviation experts say that nothing ever gets fixed until a lot of people die, which is not a thought that will help cure your anxiety about flying. But it’s true and it’s been true throughout the history of aviation. Planes didn&#8217;t have wind shear detectors until commercial airliners started crashing in bad weather, just shy of the runway. TCAS wasn&#8217;t mandatory until there were a lot of mid-air collisions. Pilots didn&#8217;t have to de-ice until an Air Florida plane nose-dived into a Potomac after sitting for too long on the tarmac on a snowy day.
What this means is that, if history is any guide, soon enough, we may finally start to get some solutions to the air traffic control debacle we&#8217;re seeing right now all over the country — from Portland to San Diego to New Orleans to New York, to pretty much any other major metropolitan area in this country. That&#8217;s because, as problematic as it may be for the Biden administration&#8217;s equity agenda, we&#8217;re closer than we&#8217;ve been in more than a decade to a disaster of truly historic proportions. And when that happens, a lot of people will die. And then, and only then, when it’s too late, will anything be done about the problem.

Passenger airplane taking off at sunset

How Government ‘Diversity’ Initiatives Are Leading Us To A Major Airline Disaster

American Airlines

Biden Administration

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Readers Pass

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Airlines</a> flight was forced to turn around this week after plummeting 28,000 feet in a matter of minutes after taking off to Rome from New Jersey.
Data from FlightAware said the plane dropped from about 37,000 feet down to just 9,000 feet in the span of eight minutes just after 10 p.m. EST on Wednesday night, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/united-airlines-flight-drops-pressurization/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. The airline said that the plane returned &#8220;to address a possible loss of cabin pressure.&#8221;
&#8220;United Airlines Flight 510 returned safely to Newark Liberty International Airport around 12:25 a.m. local time on Thursday, Sept. 14, after the crew reported a pressurization issue,&#8221; the Federal Aviation Administration <a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/statements" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;The Boeing 777 was headed to Rome–Fiumicino International Airport.&#8221;
The CNN report said that the flight with 270 passengers and 14 crew members landed safely.
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The FAA Is investigating the rapid descent of a United Airlines jet that was traveling from Newark, New Jersey to Rome. Pilots on the flight reported a possible pressurization issue about 50 minutes into the flight and had to circle back to the airport for an emergency landing. <a href="https://t.co/Y43oApBaSk">pic.twitter.com/Y43oApBaSk</a>
&mdash; CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1702471555970638062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2023</a></blockquote>
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In December, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-separate-incident-from-hawaii-flight-five-people-go-to-hospital-after-severe-turbulence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">at least five people</a> went to the hospital for injuries sustained during “severe turbulence” on a United Airlines flight from Brazil headed to Houston.
“The flight experienced severe turbulence that resulted in five passengers being transported to the hospital once it landed in Houston,” public information officer Augusto Bernal said.
According to United, the injured included two passengers and three crew members.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the plane — a Boeing 767 — reported experiencing turbulence as it traveled over Cancun, Mexico.
The incident comes after a similar situation also occurred in December on a Hawaiian Airlines flight that resulted in 20 people going to the hospital. In total, 36 people on the Hawaiian Airlines flight were hurt. The plane touched down at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu on Sunday morning. Eleven people were admitted with serious conditions, while nine others were stable.
“Injuries included a serious head injury, lacerations, bruising and loss of consciousness,” Shayne Enright, a Honolulu Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman, said, per The New York Times.
“We are also very happy and we feel fortunate that there were not any deaths or other critical injuries,” Jim Ireland, director of Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, said.
“It’s the holidays, everybody’s trying to come here for vacation or come back home,” he added. “It’s generally a time when people are happy. And so this is obviously something that they didn’t plan for in their journey here.”
Jon Snook, the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Hawaiian Air, told reporters that the “fasten seatbelt” sign was illuminated when the incident took place.
“Sometimes, these air pockets occur with no warning. It’s rare to have that level of extreme turbulence. It was a very extreme case of mid-air turbulence,” Snook said. “We’re very thankful the extent of the injuries was not critical. It could have been worse.”
Charlotte Pence Bond contributed to this report.

Nashville, Tennessee, International Airport scenes

United Airlines Flight Plummets 28,000 Feet After Leaving New Jersey For Rome, Forced To Return

New Jersey

United Airlines

Airport workers backed by one of the biggest labor unions in the nation protested at LAX Airport this week for stricter airline emissions regulations to combat “environmental racism.”
The protesters are members of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/service-employees-international-union-seiu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Service Employees International Union</a> United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW) organization, Airport Workers United (AWU).
The protest occurred in front of a departures terminal at the airport. Protestors used the phrase, “No justice, no peace,” a popular chant in Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and riots, as well as the environmentalist alternative, “No clean air, no peace.”
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No justice! NO PEACE! No clean air! NO PEACE! Standing up to hold the airlines accountable for their emissions’ impacts on black and brown communities. <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodAirports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoodAirports</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SenHenryStern?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenHenryStern</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LAANE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LAANE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LN4S?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LN4S</a> <a href="https://t.co/IILT080Sfo">pic.twitter.com/IILT080Sfo</a>
&mdash; SEIU USWW (@seiuusww) <a href="https://twitter.com/seiuusww/status/1697324018880360826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The protestors called on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) — which approved California’s gas-powered car <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-regulators-approve-banning-new-gas-car-sales" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ban</a> — to regulate airline industry emissions like other industry emissions during their next <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/ma091423" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> on Sept. 14. CARB will consider increased regulations on the airline industry by adding jet fuel into the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
LCFS regulation currently doesn’t <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/basics-notes.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apply</a> to conventional jet fuel, aviation gasoline, deficit-generating fuel used in military tactical vehicles, and certain credit-generating fossil compressed natural gas or fossil propane fuels.
In a press release, SEIU-UWW said that the airline industry is the fourth-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, causing “extreme heat” and disproportionate levels of respiratory disease among minorities.
“Airline emissions also contain various particles and chemicals that contribute to drastically increased levels of asthma and other respiratory diseases in airport workers and the predominantly black and brown communities surrounding LAX,” stated the press release.
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Featured speakers at Thursday’s protest included workers JoVann Houston and Oscar Antonio, as well as Democratic California State Senator Henry Stern.
Houston <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UnitedServiceWorkersWest/videos/260444366886187" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that environmental racism was to blame for her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory disease which causes breathing issues.
“Environmental racism is a disproportionate impact of environmental hazards of people of color,” said Houston. “Communities of color are more likely to live in polluted neighborhoods, and as a result we suffer the highest rates of asthma, cancer, and heart disease.”
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Airline emissions are killing black and brown communities! So airport workers are standing up against the powerful airlines to HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE!<a href="https://twitter.com/LAANE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LAANE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LN4S?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LN4S</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HenrySternCA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HenrySternCA</a> <a href="https://t.co/OXAOec9Yan">pic.twitter.com/OXAOec9Yan</a>
&mdash; SEIU USWW (@seiuusww) <a href="https://twitter.com/seiuusww/status/1697316838307410067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Houston has been a featured face of SEIU advocacy for stricter emissions regulations since March 2020, as well as <a href="https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/06/california-minimum-wage-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increasing</a> the minimum wage to $25 or more an hour.
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Cities like Los Angeles are run by hard working airport Black workers like Jovan Houston. Listen to her speak about the harmful impact of an expansion at LAX 
If you care about Jovan, sign our petition now: <a href="https://t.co/w1Kr8PZbMK">https://t.co/w1Kr8PZbMK</a> <a href="https://t.co/0iLRenBXrW">pic.twitter.com/0iLRenBXrW</a>
&mdash; SEIU USWW (@seiuusww) <a href="https://twitter.com/seiuusww/status/1457840034875248646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
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&quot;Our health is impacted at LAX by airline emissions. LAX is trying to add 2 more terminals, meaning more planes int he air, dumping fuel and pollution. We are not allowing airlines to this expansion without US in mind.&quot; &#8211; Jovan Houston of <a href="https://twitter.com/seiuusww?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@seiuusww</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireDrillFriday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FireDrillFriday</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Solidarity?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Solidarity</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ec6TBlBGYd">pic.twitter.com/Ec6TBlBGYd</a>
&mdash; STAND-LA (@STAND_LA) <a href="https://twitter.com/STAND_LA/status/1236017847907676160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In June, Houston was invited to testify on behalf of the SEIU before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Biden administration’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-new-carbon-pollution-standards-fossil-fuel-fired-power-plants-tackle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> changes to carbon pollution standards.
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Jovan Houston, an airport worker in Los Angeles and member of <a href="https://twitter.com/seiuusww?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@seiuusww</a>, testified on the second day of hearings about how climate pollution disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities, and worsens both her COPD and her son&#39;s asthma. Thank you for testifying, Jovan! <a href="https://t.co/Qcleom31a8">pic.twitter.com/Qcleom31a8</a>
&mdash; Climate Action Campaign (@actonclimateUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/actonclimateUS/status/1671617172425125888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Antonio claimed that he and his co-workers developed various breathing ailments due to working at LAX. He echoed the union’s advocacy for airlines to lower the carbon content of the jet fuel they use.
“Since working at LAX, I developed pneumonia. My coworkers have developed chronic respiratory diseases,” said Antonio.
Featured in the protest was a poster that read: “Airline Emissions Are Killing Black and Brown Communities.”
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“Since working at LAX I developed pneumonia. My coworkers have developed chronic respiratory diseases. Let’s show the world what we can do when we fight together!” &#8211; USWW member Oscar Antonio <a href="https://twitter.com/LAANE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LAANE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SenHenryStern?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenHenryStern</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LN4S?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LN4S</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodAirports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoodAirports</a> <a href="https://t.co/Sdy0didtMe">pic.twitter.com/Sdy0didtMe</a>
&mdash; SEIU USWW (@seiuusww) <a href="https://twitter.com/seiuusww/status/1697317914003779972?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Stern said that airlines have too much of an emission impact under their present practices that even a drastic measure like shutting down every Los Angeles highway wouldn’t make a difference. Stern fully <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/not-all-environmentalists-pleased-with-push-to-ban-gas-powered-cars-in-california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> California’s total vehicle electrification through its ban of new gas-powered cars. The EPA <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-epa-gives-california-special-authority-to-phase-out-heavy-duty-gas-trucks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave</a> California special permissions for the ban in March.
“We have to hold jet fuel to the same standard that we hold all other fuels to,” said Stern. “If we have to clean up, they have to clean up.”
A month after approving California’s gas car ban, the EPA <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-unveils-proposal-for-landmark-nationwide-crackdown-on-gas-cars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> a similar crackdown nationwide.
Regulations of the airline industry in the name of combating climate change have resulted in drastic policy changes with outsized economic impacts.
Last October, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) pledged during its <a href="https://www.icao.int/Meetings/a41/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual assembly</a> to reach net zero emissions by 2050; during that same assembly, the United States was <a href="https://www.icao.int/about-icao/Council/CouncilStates/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elected</a> to join ICAO’s Member Governing Council as one of 10 states of chief importance in air transport. W. Brent Christensen serves as the nation’s representative on the council; Christensen formerly served as the director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy from 2018 to 2021.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-kerry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Kerry</a>, the nation’s first Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, applauded the ICAO pledge. Kerry, a member of the Forbes family, was former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, and the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.
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Thrilled to see international aviation commit at <a href="https://twitter.com/icao?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@icao</a> 41st Assembly to a sustainable future with a long-term climate goal and an ambitious CORSIA to help put aviation on the path to net zero by 2050.
&mdash; Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry (@ClimateEnvoy) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateEnvoy/status/1578406843566755840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
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In April, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-19/aviation-s-near-term-carbon-fix-to-pass-price-hikes-to-consumers%23xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> Bloomberg panelists that proposed “sustainable” aviation fuel would result in steep airline ticket prices. In May, France <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-nation-bans-short-domestic-flights-over-climate-worries-private-jet-flights-still-allowed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned</a> short-haul domestic flights to make headway on its goal of carbon neutrality. Like the U.S., France was <a href="https://www.icao.int/about-icao/Council/CouncilStates/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elected</a> one of the ICAO Member Governing Council states of chief importance in air transport last year.

Airport Workers Backed By Major Labor Union Protest At LAX To Combat ‘Environmental Racism’

Airport Workers Backed By Major Labor Union Protest At LAX For Stricter Airline Emissions Regulations To Combat ‘Environmental Racism’

Climate Change

Environmentalism

Labor Unions

According to a new report, flight delays and cancellations will plague the airline industry for the next ten years due to the shortage in the aviation industry of commercial pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers.
ACBS News analysis of data from the FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Labor found that the current situation will only worsen with time, as the industry is 32,000 commercial pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers short of what is necessary to perform smoothly. Some estimates <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/united-airlines-training-program-aviate-academy-pilot-shortage-graduating-class-women-minorities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> that airlines worldwide could run 60,000 pilots short by 2030.
The number of delays that arose from issues that air carriers can control soared from 5.2% in 2018 to 7.6% in 2023, resulting in thousands of delayed flights. As recently as June 24-27, 31,850 flights, representing one third of all flights nationwide, were delayed, 25% higher than the year before for
Between Dec. 24 and Dec. 31, 2022, Southwest Airlines canceled 14,042 flights, 72.3% of all canceled flights nationwide, the Department of Transportation acknowledged.
A spokesperson for Airlines-4-America, which represents seven of the nation&#8217;s biggest carriers, stated, ‘U.S. airlines recognize the importance of securing a pipeline of new employees—pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and others—and have established new pilot training programs, enhanced recruitment efforts and implemented programs to address financial hurdles.”
“They are leaving planes on the ground because they don&#8217;t have enough people to fly them for ground crews or anything like that,” Wichita State University emeritus associate professor Dean Headley, who has published the <a href="https://airlinequalityrating.wichita.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Airline Quality Rating</a> since 1991, told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-future-of-flying-more-delays-more-cancellations-more-chaos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a>. “The airlines are doing about as much as they can [to improve staffing levels]. They can train about 1,500 to 1,800 pilots a year.”
“Some of the predictions I&#8217;m hearing is that the pilot shortage won&#8217;t be resolved until 2032 or something like that,” he concluded.
“That is the big unsung shortage that nobody talks about,” Kathleen Bangs, spokeswoman for flight tracking website FlightAware, said of the shortage of mechanics. “Most people don&#8217;t understand that about half of all airline maintenance is done overseas. So, we outsource a lot of that maintenance and I think it&#8217;s going to be challenging. We have to figure out a way — how do we attract young people to become mechanics, which are critical, but also at the same time they&#8217;re outsourcing more and more of their work?”
The aviation industry is running roughly 3,000 fully-certified air traffic controllers short, CBS News analysis found.
“The shortage is real, it&#8217;s impacting everyone who engages in air travel, and it&#8217;s an issue we have to address or ticket prices are going to continue to go up and the delays will continue to plague us,” said Joel English, the vice president of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM).

United Airlines Cancels Hundreds Of Flights Thursday As Chaotic Week Of Air Travel Continues

Delays, Cancellations Could Plague Airline Industry For Ten Years: Report

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