Airline Crews Say Diversity Agenda Persists, Despite Safety Concerns and Trump Orders

For one veteran airline captain, a routine flight to Denver changed her view about aviation safety, but not because of an in-flight crisis. Rather, the captain heard a story that, for the first time in her decades-long career, made her uneasy about putting her loved ones on a plane.

During a conversation last year, a flight instructor described unusual steps managers had taken to salvage the career of a young female trainee pilot. The instructor described an “egregious” example of the apparent relaxing of standards to meet diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals, the captain said. The trainee repeatedly failed rudimentary pilot training tests. By “crashing” a computer simulation flight, she proved her inability to operate an airplane’s three most basic control mechanisms, the instructor said. Yet management balked when the instructor failed her.

Diversity programs, aimed at boosting women and minorities, remain entrenched at airlines, despite President Donald Trump’s executive orders against the practice and growing concerns over air crashes and safety incidents, the captain and other workers said. The captain pointed to signs that additional inept trainees are being “pushed through.”

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