Congressman Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight last Wednesday to speak about Congress' supposed efforts to reform the FAA's hiring process for air traffic control specialists.

Here is the relevant clip:

https://youtu.be/UIhNptuq4NA?t=3m41s

CARLSON: "If there's a single person who's unqualified and hired for this job..."

LOBIONDO: "If one of these people who, really, maybe doesn't belong there,  gets through the initial process, they have to go through the academy and they're washed out because the academy will put up with no nonsense."

CARLSON: "I don't believe that for a second because the directive is, 'Look, there are things that are more important than ability.' And everybody in a bureaucracy knows you're graded on irrelevant criteria, like your commitment to diversity. And so, like, you're going to have bad people get through.

There's a lot to digest with this exchange, so we're going to take it point-by-point. 1. On the Biographical Assessment/Biographical Questionnaire:

It is already well established that the hiring scheme is just that -- a scheme, a fraudulent attempt to screen thousands of applications with a process that lacks any merit, and specifically in the case of the 2014 Biographical Questionnaire, a process which specifically sought and promoted those applications from people who were objectively less qualified than thousands of others. 2. On LoBiondo's claims that "The FAA Academy will put up with no nonsense."

Respectfully, Mr. Chairman, the FAA Academy is the epitome of nonsense even more so than the ridiculous hiring process that leads people to it. Why is that? It's because the same people who were behind the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and upcoming 2018 biographical assessments (yes -- that's five years' worth of fake biographical tests) are the same people in charge at the FAA Academy.

Let's name a few:

a. Rick Mitchell - Air Traffic Hiring, Training, and Placement Team b. J.B. Goelz - Air Traffic Hiring Hiring, Training, and Placement Team c. Vanessa Garrison - Air Traffic Hiring Hiring, Training, and Placement Team d. Alethia Futtrell (NBCFAE) - Tower Training Program Branch Manager e. Luis Diaz (NBCFAE) - FAA Office of Civil Rights f. Cortney Custer - Human Resources Representative g. Dana Broach - FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) h. Jim Doskow - FAA Academy Staff Manager i. Terry Craft - FAA Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) Representative j. Greta Ballard - FAA Academy Curriculum Developer k. Cynthia Seikel - FAA Academy Curriculum Developer


To the extent that the FAA air traffic control specialist hiring process is shocking, the grading processes at the FAA Academy should be even more so. If you want more details on that, please see our About page here. This issue has also been addressed in two of our articles:

FAA Academy Terminates 7 out of 16 Tower Trainees Following Faulty Simulator Evaluations

Theories Abound Concerning FAA Academy Washout Rate


The FAA Academy does put up with nonsense because its own programs are largely nonsense. In this respect, Carlson is right: If the culture of the agency is to hire people without legitimate qualifications, then the culture within the agency is going to work to promote and retain those same people.

Thus, is is not uncommon for trainees with a demonstrated history of high performance to be washed out in a "sudden death" eval and be terminated. It is also not uncommon for a trainee who performed terribly to get another shot at the job. This is not "evening out the playing field." This is amending the rules of the game to favor specific demographics of people more than others. The FAA can and does find any excuse to retain and retrain those trainees from demographics it desires, and can and does find every excuse to terminate those trainees of demographics about whom they couldn't care less.

The comments section of the above video, a commenter named Thomas Nunn, who states he is an air traffic control specialist himself, sums things up pretty well:

"...the metrics show an increase of failures at the academy, and pretty much every instructor is a retired, old-school controller from some of the biggest and most complex facilities in the nation; they fail out people at a pretty large rate, even people who could likely learn the job at their first facility."

YouTube comment from Thomas Nunn, an air traffic controller, responding to coverage of the FAA hiring scandal.

Those people to whom Mr. Nunn is referring are typically high performing trainees who fail out of the academy as a result of one evaluation, usually one in which the trainee feels he or she has not been fairly administered in the first place. This is a pattern and practice of improper behavior, and all of the investigative agencies reading this website should take note -- especially of the named FAA employees we listed above. If they are serious about getting to the bottom of this, they will start with the top of that list and work their way down.

Chairman LoBiondo, you and your cohorts at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have a lot more work to do beyond investigating the FAA's hiring processes. There is more to this story that is essentially right under your nose. We just need you to do a little more sniffing.

You can watch the full segment with Chairman LoBiondo here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIhNptuq4NA