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;
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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>
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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

&#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/yellowstone">Yellowstone&#8221;</a> star Forrie J. Smith said he was kicked off an airplane over the weekend because he refused to sit beside a masked passenger.
In a video posted Sunday on his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C44RF2Nq3eh/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=7b70c4f6-b2e3-493f-8d29-9389a8bf2b4b">Instagram</a> account, the 65-year-old actor said he was stranded at the airport in Houston, Texas, because he spoke up about another passenger wearing a face covering.
&#8220;I just got kicked off a plane in &#8212; where the hell am I at? &#8212; Houston, Texas, because I told them I didn&#8217;t feel comfortable sitting next to somebody with a mask on,&#8221; Smith told his fans. 
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been sitting in the airport for three hours, yeah, I&#8217;m drinking,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But I ain&#8217;t drunk. But they throwed me off the plane because I&#8217;m drunk because you people won&#8217;t stand up and tell everybody what bulls**t this is.&#8221;
&#8220;I just told them I didn&#8217;t feel comfortable about sitting next to somebody that had to wear a mask,&#8221; Smith continued. &#8220;And I&#8217;m off the plane.&#8221;
At the time of this publication, it is unclear where he was traveling to, what exactly happened on the plane, or which airline allegedly kicked him off the flight.
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&#8220;Yellowstone&#8221; star Forrie J. Smith took to Instagram to say he was &#8220;kicked off&#8221; a flight and left stranded in Houston after refusing to sit next to another passenger wearing a mask. <a href="https://t.co/UnPSmIpAKR">https://t.co/UnPSmIpAKR</a>
— NBC News (@NBCNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1772281130609221930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2024</a></blockquote>
The star of the Paramount series has been vocal in the past about COVID vaccinations and previously didn&#8217;t appear at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2022 over vaccine requirements, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/yellowstone-star-forrie-j-smith-says-was-kicked-flight-refusing-sit-ma-rcna144887">NBC News</a> noted.
&#8220;I’m not vaccinated, I will not get vaccinated,&#8221; Smith said in a since-deleted Instagram post. &#8220;I believe they compromise your immunities … It’s no offense to anyone.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s just my beliefs,&#8221; he added .&#8221;I just don&#8217;t believe in that stuff.&#8221; 
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The popular Taylor Sheridan-created western drama is coming to an end this year following scheduling conflicts with Kevin Costner. Fans are awaiting the second half of Season 5 when it hits the network in November.  Last year, rumors surfaced that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/reese-witherspoon-has-something-to-say-about-those-kevin-costner-dating-rumors">Costner</a> was leaving the show at the height of its popularity. He recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-costner-talks-leaving-yellowstone-hints-at-possible-court-battle">opened</a> up about what caused his departure from the popular series over a scheduling conflict.
Costner said Paramount &#8220;walked away&#8221; from negotiations. &#8220;We did negotiate. There were issues about creative. I tried to break the log jam. They walked away.&#8221;
&#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yellowstone-receives-zero-emmy-nominations-while-woke-shows-get-multiple-nods">Yellowstone&#8221;</a> has been nominated for a handful of awards since the show debuted in 2018, with Costner scoring a Golden Globe in 2023, the first <a href="https://www.tvinsider.com/1076577/golden-globes-2023-kevin-costner-winner-best-actor-drama-yellowstone/">major win</a> for the show.

Yellowstone

‘Yellowstone’ Star Says He ‘Got Kicked Off’ Plane For Refusing To Sit By Masked Passenger: Report

‘Yellowstone’ Star Says He 'Got Kicked Off' Plane For Refusing To Sit By Masked Passenger: Report

Celebrities

Entertainment

Face Masks

Houston

Texas

vaccine

A United Airlines <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/boeing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boeing</a> 737 lost an external panel while it was in the air between San Francisco and Oregon on Friday with the airline crew only discovering the part was missing after the plane landed.
The Boeing 737-800 — which departed around 10:40 a.m. as United Airlines flight 433 carrying 139 passengers and six crew members — landed safely over an hour later at Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/03/15/us-news/boeing-737-loses-external-panel-mid-flight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Airport Director Amber Judd told the outlet that after one of the plane&#8217;s external panels was found to be missing, the airport&#8217;s operations were temporarily halted as it conducted a safety check on the runway.
“After finding no debris on the airfield, normal operations at MFR resumed a few minutes later,” Judd said.
While in flight, there was no indication that the plane had any problem or emergency, the airline said. The plane, which is 25 years old, will undergo a &#8220;thorough examination,” according to United, which added that it will “perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service&#8221; and &#8220;conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Breaking?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Breaking</a>: United Airlines Boeing 737 loses panel mid-flight after takeoff from San Francisco, diverts to Oregon airport. Plane lands safely, no injuries reported.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Boeing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Boeing</a> <a href="https://t.co/MgmnLaUn5v">pic.twitter.com/MgmnLaUn5v</a>
&mdash; World News Global (@WorldNewsGb) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldNewsGb/status/1768788485207679346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The Federal Aviation Administration also said it will investigate the incident.
The latest mid-air incident comes amid a string of mishaps involving Boeing aircraft. Last week, a tire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-tire-falls-off-united-boeing-flight-during-takeoff-damages-multiple-cars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fell off</a> a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 as it was taking off. The tire damaged multiple cars in a parking lot, but no one was injured.
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here is video of a tire falling off a united flight today at SFO
this comes one month after a wheel fell off a Delta plane in atlanta just prior to takeoff <a href="https://t.co/OrednBxQ7g">pic.twitter.com/OrednBxQ7g</a>
&mdash; Gregg Re (@gregg_re) <a href="https://twitter.com/gregg_re/status/1765860893710057532?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Days earlier, a United flight from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida, was forced to turn around after one of its engines burst into flames.
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The FAA is investigating a mechanical issue on a United Airlines flight that caused flames to shoot from the rear of an engine minutes after takeoff on Monday. <a href="https://t.co/jrwnIglEGT">https://t.co/jrwnIglEGT</a> <a href="https://t.co/8VoCBoDHfk">pic.twitter.com/8VoCBoDHfk</a>
&mdash; ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1765841535088590890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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In January, a door plug fell off of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max minutes after it had taken off from Portland, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boeing-refusing-to-hand-over-records-on-alaska-airlines-plane-that-lost-chunk-of-its-wall-mid-air-gov-official-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation last week, saying that Boeing was refusing to tell investigators the names of people on a 25-member team that worked on a door plug that came off the Alaska Airlines plane.
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“Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door,” the NTSB chair said.
“It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that,” she added. “Without that information, that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, [and] safety management systems.”
Boeing <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/boeing-documents-ntsb-alaska-door-plug-probe/story?id=107846602" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> ABC News that it has “worked proactively and transparently” to support the NTSB investigation.
“Early in the investigation, we provided the NTSB with names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who we believed would have relevant information,” Boeing said. “We have now provided the full list of individuals on the 737 door team, in response to a recent request. With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share.”

Los Angeles Exteriors And Landmarks – 2022

United Airlines Boeing 737 Loses External Panel Mid-Air

General

U.S.

United Airlines

A former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/boeing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boeing</a> employee who raised safety concerns related to the company&#8217;s aircraft production was found dead this week.
Former Boeing quality manager John Barnett, who The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/business/john-barnett-boeing-whistleblower-dead.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> as a &#8220;prominent&#8221; whistleblower, was in Charleston, South Carolina, this week for a deposition for a lawsuit that he filed against Boeing. The lawsuit alleges that the company retaliated against Barnett for raising his safety concerns with the U.S. Labor Department in 2017 under the AIR21 Whistleblower Protection Program.
The Charleston Police Department was dispatched on Saturday morning to conduct a welfare check at a Holiday Inn hotel and discovered Barnett, 62, sitting inside a vehicle with a &#8220;gunshot wound to the head,&#8221; police said.
Police said that it appeared as though the fatal gunshot wound was &#8220;self-inflicted,&#8221; but added that the detectives and the coroner were still investigating to make an official determination about his cause of death.
&#8220;We understand the global attention this case has garnered, and it is our priority to ensure that the investigation is not influenced by speculation but is led by facts and evidence,&#8221; the department added. &#8220;Given the sensitive nature of the investigation, we are unable to participate in media interviews at this time. This stance is not unique to this case but is a standard procedure we adhere to in order to preserve the integrity of active investigations. Public disclosure will follow the investigation&#8217;s conclusion.&#8221;
Boeing responded to his death by saying in a statement, “We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Barnett had warned that at Boeing’s South Carolina plant, clusters of metal shavings had been left inside the plane hanging over wiring that commands the plane&#8217;s flight controls, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/business/boeing-dreamliner-production-problems.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare&amp;sgrp=c-cb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in 2019. He warned that if the metal shavings penetrated the wires, the results could be catastrophic.
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&#8220;As a quality manager at Boeing, you&#8217;re the last line of defense before a defect makes it out to the flying public,&#8221; Barnett told the newspaper. &#8220;And I haven&#8217;t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I&#8217;d put my name on saying it&#8217;s safe and airworthy.&#8221;
He also <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50293927" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discovered</a> that there were allegedly problems with the plane&#8217;s oxygen systems, which meant that some breathing devices may not work during an emergency.

A Boeing Facility Ahead Of Earnings Figures

Boeing Whistleblower Who Warned Of Aircraft Safety Problems Found Dead

Lawsuit

Dozens of people were injured on Monday when a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787 suddenly plunged mid-flight.
The flight from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, experienced &#8220;a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement,&#8221; the airline said in a statement.
Approximately 50 people were injured in the incident, with ten passengers and three cabin crew members needing to be taken to the hospital. One patient was listed in &#8220;serious condition,&#8221; while the rest had mild to moderate injuries, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2024/03/11/latam-airlines-flight-boeing-australia-new-zealand/">reported</a>.
&#8220;The safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority,&#8221; the airline added. &#8220;LATAM is providing affected passengers with food and accommodation services due to the flight cancellation. LATAM deeply regrets any inconvenience and discomfort this situation may have caused its passengers, and reiterates its commitment to safety as a top priority.&#8221;
Multiple ambulances were on scene when the plane landed at Auckland International Airport at its originally scheduled time.
Passenger Brian Jokat said that some passengers were thrown into the ceiling of the plane with such force that it broke parts of the cabin upon impact. The entire ordeal only lasted a few seconds, he said.
&#8220;The plane, unannounced, just dropped. I mean it dropped unlike anything I&#8217;ve ever experienced on any kind of minor turbulence, and people were thrown out of their seats, hit the top of the roof of the plane, throwing down the aisles,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Some of the roof panels were broken from people being thrown up and knocking through the plastic roof panels in the aisle ways. And there was blood coming from several people&#8217;s heads.&#8221;
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Another passenger said the crew was so severely injured that they were unable to help any injured passengers.
Boeing, which has seen its brand significantly damaged in recent years due to two plane crashes and several planes that had manufacturing issues, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/dozens-injured-on-latam-airlines-flight-after-technical-event-with-boeing-787-dreamliner-b656b58c">said</a> it was &#8220;working to gather more information about the flight and will provide any support needed by our customers.&#8221;
The news comes as United Airlines experienced <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/united-airlines-experiences-another-flight-emergency">multiple</a> flight emergencies last week, ranging from a tire falling off a plane to flames shooting out from an engine during flight.

Boeing 737-300 Aircraft Parked in College

Dozens Injured After Boeing 787 Plunges During Flight

Air &amp; Space

Australia

New Zealand

World

Boeing, the largest aircraft manufacturer in the U.S., is refusing to provide information on the Alaska Airlines plane that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-going-to-die-alaska-airlines-makes-emergency-landing-after-chunk-of-plane-blown-out-on-nightmare-flight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost a large chunk of its wall</a> in January while in flight, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told senators on Wednesday.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?534041-1/national-transportation-safety-board-chair-testifies-alaska-airlines-investigation-transportation-#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that Boeing was refusing to tell investigators the names of people on a 25-member team that worked on a door plug that came off the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 minutes after it had taken off from Portland. Homendy also said that the company has not provided documentation about a repair job on the panel that blew out of the plane, forcing the flight to make an emergency landing.
“Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door,” the NTSB chair said.
“It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that,” she added. “Without that information, that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, [and] safety management systems.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/NTSB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NTSB</a> Chair <a href="https://twitter.com/JenniferHomendy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JenniferHomendy</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenTedCruz</a>: &quot;Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door&#8230;it&#39;s absurd&#8230;&quot; <a href="https://t.co/0AfbusPuss">pic.twitter.com/0AfbusPuss</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1765469377661407353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Footage shared on social media showed the aftermath of the door plug blowing off the plane as passengers were forced to put on oxygen masks until the flight safely landed. There were reportedly more than 170 passengers on the flight and six crew members. No one was injured during the incident.
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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>
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According to an NTSB report, four bolts that are designed to keep the door plug from falling off the Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing before the plug blew off the Alaska Airlines flight, ABC News <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/alaska-airlines-door-plug-ntsb-report/story?id=106992184" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> last month. The NTSB found that on September 23, 2023, at Boeing&#8217;s factory in Renton, Washington, contractors with Spirit AeroSystems replaced damaged rivets on a frame next to the door plug, but photo evidence showed that when the workers closed the plug, bolts were missing in three locations, according to the NTSB report.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded to Homendy’s revelations during the hearing, saying that Boeing’s alleged refusal to hand over vital information was “utterly unacceptable.”
“The parties who are being investigated by NTSB need to cooperate fully, and Congress expects them to cooperate fully because you have an obligation to the American public to get to the bottom of what happened,” Cruz added.
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The senator then requested Homendy to inform the committee in writing by next Wednesday if Boeing has cooperated with NTSB requests, saying that he expects the agency to have the names of the 25 people who worked on the plane&#8217;s door plug.
Retired aviation expert Ira Astrachan told The Daily Wire that the NTSB&#8217;s focus on finding information on the team members who worked on the Alaska Airlines door plug is misguided. Rather than looking into a specific worker to cast blame on, the federal agency should investigate the processes of how Boeing and its contractors sign off on fixes to commercial aircraft, Astrachan said.
Boeing <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/boeing-documents-ntsb-alaska-door-plug-probe/story?id=107846602">told</a> ABC News that it has &#8220;worked proactively and transparently&#8221; to support the NTSB investigation.
&#8220;Early in the investigation, we provided the NTSB with names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who we believed would have relevant information,” Boeing said. “We have now provided the full list of individuals on the 737 door team, in response to a recent request. With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share.&#8221;
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded over 170 Boeing 737 Max 9s after the incident, but Alaska Airlines has resumed flying the Boeing 737 Max 9 following a fleet inspection in late January.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy Testifies In Senate Hearing

Boeing Refusing To Hand Over Records On Alaska Airlines Plane That Lost Chunk Of Its Wall Mid-Air, Gov Official Says

Biden Administration

Senate

New footage emerged this week of the moment a private jet attempted to land on an interstate in Florida after experiencing catastrophic engine failure and ended up crashing and bursting into flames.
Of the five people on the plane, two were killed and three survived when the Bombardier Challenger 600 jet crashed on I-75 near Naples, Florida, around 3:15 p.m. local time on Friday.
The moment the crash happened was captured on dashcam footage from a vehicle traveling in the lanes where the plane attempted to land.
WATCH:
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WATCH: New video shows Friday&#39;s plane crash on I-75 in Naples, Florida <a href="https://t.co/M8EvNtgcxv">pic.twitter.com/M8EvNtgcxv</a>
&mdash; BNO News (@BNONews) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1757181949418918273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Those killed included Capt. Edward Daniel Murphy, 50, and co-pilot Frederick Hoffman, 65, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
Those who survived included crew member Sydney Ann Bosmans, 23, and passengers Aaron Baker, 35, and Audra Green, 23.
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 experienced 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: “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.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/private-jet-crashes-on-florida-interstate-at-least-2-killed">Private Jet Crashes On Florida Interstate; At Least 2 Killed</a>

Plane Florida

WATCH: Video Captures Moment Private Plane Crashes On Florida Interstate

Airplane crash

Florida

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh posted a thread on X on Wednesday that featured internal footage of Federal Aviation Administration officials “workshopping a plan to reduce the number of white males in aviation.”
The footage obtained by Walsh shows a video conference from April 2022 where acting Deputy Chief Operating Officer Angela McCullough argued for more airline workers to go “from ramp to cockpit,” complaining that Flight Operations is “white-male dominated.” McCullough then argued that the agency needs to “get a little uncomfortable” and “talk about what the future could look like.”
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2/ The footage begins with FAA acting deputy chief operating officer Angela McCullough saying more workers need to go from &quot;ramp to cockpit,&quot; meaning she wants to see more baggage handlers become airline pilots. <a href="https://t.co/2KAeHNcJA2">pic.twitter.com/2KAeHNcJA2</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1755319180306346029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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David Wil Riggins, the FAA’s vice president of Flight Program Operations, responded to McCullough’s comments, saying, &#8220;That&#8217;s great, honestly. Those are some words that we really need to spend some time digging through and thinking about.&#8221;
“This footage, which is from April of 2022, is a sign of a much larger problem,” Walsh said in his post unraveling the FAA meeting. “Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard from several members of the aviation industry who tell me that DEI is endangering the public and distracting them from their work.”
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3/ As the meeting goes on, McCullough declares that it&#39;s important to &quot;get a little uncomfortable.&quot; She complains that Flight Operations is &quot;white-male dominated&quot; and tells the managers they need to “talk about what the future could look like.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/cZCSAluWyN">pic.twitter.com/cZCSAluWyN</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1755319182076325926?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Walsh said that this radical DEI-centered thinking has already affected airline pilots, some of whom are allegedly being prioritized for their gender identity.
“A second source – a pilot I’ve confirmed works at Delta – tells me that Delta has recently promoted a trans-identifying pilot who repeatedly received bad reviews from captains,” the Daily Wire host said. “According to the source, this pilot ‘would likely not have’ survived probation if he weren’t trans.”
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6/ A second source — a pilot I’ve confirmed works at Delta — tells me that Delta has recently promoted a trans-identifying pilot who repeatedly received bad reviews from captains. According to the source, this pilot “would likely not have” survived probation if he weren’t trans. <a href="https://t.co/VnnTVXbTeO">pic.twitter.com/VnnTVXbTeO</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1755319188975919594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“For example, the source notes that Delta routinely makes exceptions for trans-identifying pilots concerning grooming and behavioral standards. Internally, Delta has even published a lengthy guide for pilots who believe they were born in the wrong body,” Walsh continued.
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7/ The source also notes that Delta routinely makes exceptions for trans-identifying pilots concerning grooming and behavioral standards. Internally, Delta has even published a lengthy guide for pilots who believe they were born in the wrong body. <a href="https://t.co/8aQszhqVJw">pic.twitter.com/8aQszhqVJw</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1755319191123439760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Another source told Walsh that he is inundated with DEI proposals such as making “gender inclusive seatbelts” even though his job is to design advanced military systems.
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“We have affirmation groups, protections, and heritage months for every single type of person except for white men,” the source said. “If I don’t have at least two DEI/ESG meetings or trainings per week on my calendar then the all-hands/town hall meetings have some sort of DEI baked into the agenda.”
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8/ This industry-wide embrace of overt mental illness afflicts every aspect of aviation. Another source told me that his job is to design advanced military systems, but he’s constantly side-tracked by DEI proposals like “gender inclusive seatbelts.” <a href="https://t.co/jtEqR8Q5JG">pic.twitter.com/jtEqR8Q5JG</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1755319193006702720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Walsh said other sources have sent him info about an FAA program called “eFast” which <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/afn/offices/acquisitions/efast/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prioritizes</a> &#8220;Indian Tribal Owned corporations” and “Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Businesses” for grant funding worth billions of dollars. According to the FAA’s Master Order Agreement for eFAST, FAA contracts worth $10,000 to $150,000 are “automatically reserved exclusively” for “Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Businesses.”
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9/ Several sources have also sent me documentation about one of the FAA&#39;s largest programs, called &quot;eFast,&quot; which prioritizes &quot;Indian Tribal Owned corporations” and “Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Businesses” for billions of dollars in critical grant funding. <a href="https://t.co/3LyXkTGhAI">pic.twitter.com/3LyXkTGhAI</a>
&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1755319195493896585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“It&#8217;s only a matter of time until this combination of incompetence and anti-white discrimination leads to a major air disaster,” Walsh added. “The aviation industry needs a completely new mandate — one that&#8217;s focused solely on safety — before a lot of people die.”

Airplane/Matt Walsh

‘Plan To Reduce The Number Of White Males In Aviation’: Matt Walsh Reveals Troubling Internal Footage Of FAA Discussion On DEI Agenda

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Matt Walsh

A deep-sea expedition group says that it has discovered what appears to be Amelia Earhart’s plane, which went missing after the famed pilot crashed somewhere in the South Pacific during her flight around the world.
Deep Sea Vision, a marine-robotics company, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amelia-earharts-aircraft-believed-found-184400252.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALYxVCiuhArz9_BAqhiigMqK1mZBmqF-nqfDYH3HfW6L8LC4z-aFEXvlQYzV3rDBQAJRXgURDFHiuaZ2AEDEq6-7NqWCPLUbKoG6Tp4FzPi_xnvEdmKE9u9eHBblU8EI3lZmuU-K9ROCi2a0wMOTQiidAUqofFOBTNiCGoym2fkc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Sunday that it has located what it believes to be Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, which went missing in 1937 after taking off from Papua New Guinea. Deep Sea Vision says that it believes Earhart and her navigator got off track because they forgot to take into account the International Date Line leading them to be off target and crash into the ocean.
“This is maybe the most exciting thing I’ll ever do in my life,” Deep See Vision CEO Tim Romeo <a href="https://www.wsj.com/science/amelia-earhart-lost-plane-found-843e9e9c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal of a return trip to survey the wreckage. “I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.” 
The group posted photos of the wreck on Sunday, announcing news of the find.
“On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Papua New Guinea, nearing the end of their record-setting journey around the world never to be seen again. Until today,” Deep Sea Vision said.
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Romeo, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, said that the plane appears to be in good condition despite its being in the ocean for over 80 years.
&#8220;We always felt that she [Earhart] would have made every attempt to land the aircraft gently on the water, and the aircraft signature that we see in the sonar image suggests that may be the case,” he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re thrilled to have made this discovery at the tail end of our expedition, and we plan to bring closure to a great American story.&#8221;
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The discovery of the craft was made after the group searched over 5,200 miles of ocean over a 90 day period. The group used the <a href="https://www.deepseavision.com/service-details#wreck-hunting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HUGIN 6000</a>, an autonomous underwater vehicle, to search massive portions of the ocean at a time.
Dorothy Cochrane, aeronautics curator at the Smithsonian&#8217;s National Air and Space Museum, said that she was looking into Deep Sea Vision’s findings.
&#8220;We are intrigued with DSV&#8217;s initial imagery and believe it merits another expedition in the continuing search for Amelia Earhart&#8217;s aircraft near Howland Island,” she said.

Amelia Earhart Next to Aircraft

Deep Sea Expedition Group Says It May Have Found Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane

Deep Sea Expedition Group Says It May Have Found Amelia Earhart's Missing Plane

American History

Archaeology

History

Pacific Ocean

A B-1 Lancer bomber crash landed in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/south-dakota" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Dakota</a> on Thursday, forcing the entire crew to eject during a training mission. 
The crash landing took place at 5:50 p.m. at Ellsworth Air Force Base during a training exercise. The 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth said that the accident happened while the plane was “attempting to land on the installation. At the time of the accident, it was on a training mission. There were four aircrew on board. All four ejected safely.”
There were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/b1-crash-air-force-bomber-ellsworth-2146e52e94ae5f928407a85030e8c60d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> poor winter weather conditions at the time of the crash, which is still being investigated by an officer board. 
B-1 bombers have been in use since the 1980s with about 60 being used by Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and Ellsworth Air Force Base, according to the Associated Press. 
“The B-1B holds almost 50 world records for speed, payload, range, and time of climb in its class. The National Aeronautic Association recognized the B-1B for completing one of the 10 most memorable record flights for 1994. The most recent records were made official in 2004,” the Air Force <a href="https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104500/b-1b-lancer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a>.
The aircraft was used extensively in both Iraq and Afghanistan during the early 2000s.
“During the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom, eight B-1s dropped nearly 40 percent of the total tonnage delivered by coalition air forces. This included nearly 3,900 JDAMs, or 67 percent of the total. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the aircraft flew less than 1 percent of the combat missions while delivering 43 percent of the JDAMs used. The B-1 continues to be deployed today, flying missions daily in support of continuing operations,” according to the Air Force.
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Earlier this year, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/not-sure-where-the-airplane-is-911-call-from-f-35-crash-in-south-carolina-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Air Force lost track</a> of an F-35 in South Carolina after the pilot ejected. Military officials had to ask for the public’s help finding the plane and describing the incident as a “mishap.” Debris from the plane was later located in Williamsburg County after hours of searching. 
The plane, which cost about $100 million, kept going for about 60 miles after the pilot ejected. A spokesperson for Joint Base Charleston said the F-35B Lightning II jet from the Marine Attack Training Squadron was placed on autopilot before the pilot ejected.

US Air Force B-1B Lancer aircraft conducts flight over Sarajevo

B-1 Bomber Crash Lands In South Dakota, Forcing Crew To Eject

Military

South Dakota

U.S. Air Force

<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.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1269-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
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.

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

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