Duffy Orders FAA Probe of DEI Airline Hiring
“The American people don’t care what their pilot looks like or their gender—they just care that they are most qualified man or woman for the job.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is putting commercial airlines on notice: certify that your pilot hiring is merit-based, or face federal scrutiny.
In a directive announced Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration will issue a new mandatory “Operations Specification” requiring every U.S. carrier to formally affirm that its pilots are selected strictly on experience, technical aptitude, and qualifications. Airlines that fail to certify compliance could be subject to federal investigation and potential enforcement action. The requirement applies to all commercial carriers operating in the United States and is being framed as a safety measure, not a policy preference.
From the FAA’s press release:
“When families board their aircraft, they should fly with confidence knowing the pilot behind the controls is the best of the best. The American people don’t care what their pilot looks like or their gender—they just care that they are most qualified man or woman for the job,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “Safety drives everything we do, and this commonsense measure will increase transparency between passengers and airlines.”
This is not simply a restatement of existing qualification standards. The new OpSpec requires formal certification from airlines that race and sex are not factors in pilot selection. The FAA points to its authority under 49 U.S. Code § 44701 to prescribe minimum safety standards for air carriers and emphasizes that operational safety “is fundamentally dependent upon the knowledge and proficiency of its flight crewmembers.”
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford reinforced that rationale:
“It is a bare minimum expectation for airlines to hire the most qualified individual when making someone responsible for hundreds of lives at a time. Someone’s race, sex, or creed, has nothing to do with their ability to fly and land aircraft safely.”
The New York Post, which first reported the order, summarized the mandate succinctly:
Under a new so-called “Operations Specification,” each airline will have to certify that its pilots are selected based only on experience and aptitude.
The move follows lawsuits and public scrutiny over DEI-focused hiring policies across many areas, including aviation safety roles during the Biden-Buttigieg years. Since taking office, Duffy has dismantled DEI offices and contracts within the Department of Transportation and revised prior guidance, which he argues blurred the line between social policy and aviation safety standards.
For the administration, the message is clear. When it comes to the cockpit, merit comes first. Airlines that cannot demonstrate it may soon find themselves under investigation.
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Comments
I’m surprised the left didn’t try to rename cockpit to something gender neutral? 🤦🏼♂️
It wasn’t because of the militants but, it’s been called the “flight deck” for a very long time. To actual crew, it’s often called “the office”.
In a one- or two-man ship, like a fighter, it’s a “cockpit”. If you can stand up and walk around, it’s a “flight deck”. In either case, the “office” is also used. In some specialized circumstances, it’s “the room with the windows”.
ex-USAF E-6 Rusty Bill
The Dhimmi-crats actually did try. These reprobates are so utterly predictable. The FAA’s announcement regarding Duffy’s directive notes that the incompetent and clownish Pete Buttigieg wasted regulatory energy and effort, in an utterly ridiculous “inclusivity” effort to “…encourage the airline industry to replace the term “cockpit” with “flight deck,” as part of a broader, non-binding initiative to adopt gender-neutral, inclusive language.” (per Google Gemini).
I recall a stupid joke from the 1970s, whose punchline was “It’s called a cockpit, not a box office”.
What if I want a black lesbian with one leg that doesn’t speak English? How could I ever fly with nothing but qualified white men?
As my SIL White Male Christian married father of 2 just got hired by Southwest as a pilot
Maybe he got interviewed at the right time
Or, Southwest is not American Airlinrs, or South African Airways. Occam’s RZor and all that sort of thing.
Love it.
Delta, United, American Airlines and their “DEI”-adhering ilk probably got wind of this directive, a while ago, and have scrubbed their websites and public relations literature of any references to training “minority,” “black and brown” and “underrepresented” groups.”
Company policies will be changing. This is progress.
“Company policies will be changing.”
Don’t bet on it. They’ll just keep it going under some innocuous name, just like the universities are.
Maybe, on the other hand if/when an incident occurs I suspect that questions will be asked about the the relative competence of the pilots, their experience in that airframe, total hours of flight time and so on. ‘Nice airline you got, be a shame if y’all got grounded b/c your executives wanna hem/haw instead of answer basic questions.
I agree that normally, companies would attempt some subterfuge, but, not in instances where the threat of federal regulatory investigation and sanctions are hanging over them.
No company wants to expose themselves to that sort of regulatory and legal risk, because a lot of money is at stake.
IF/when you hire someone not qualified, you are lying to them, cheating them and in the case of airlines, possible loss of life.
This is the cadillac version of giving someone an A when they earned a lower grade or flunked a test just to make them feel good.
Merit and basics matter – in the airline industry, it can be the difference between safety and death.
Can we include a review of some of the cabin crew to include a good command of English? Sure, it is nice to converse in French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Catalan, Japanese and Chinese, but English is better for aviation safety. Tired, overweight women slurring — very quickly — in one of these languages is not what I wanted when I paid for my ticket of on Delta or American Airlines.
“Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is putting commercial airlines on notice: certify that your pilot hiring is merit-based, or face federal scrutiny.”
To the extent that one might be able to find company execs who jumped onto the DEI bandwagon under duress rather than with insane joy, I sympathize with those people.
What happened to the days of Pan Am with fashion model stewardesses in short skirts, gourmet meals and people who were actually polite to each other.
Rampant, uncontrolled leftism happened.