There was a scandal at the ATC which has culminated in a lawsuit Brigida v. Buttigieg, and from what I remember the facts look bad.

They replaced a skill assessment with a completely bizarre biography test where for instance you got +15 points if you listed science as your worst subject, but 0 if you listed math, English, history or P.E.

Then they leaked the answers to black organizations, as well as special keywords to put in their resume to go to top of the pile.

The students who spent years and thousands of dollars and aced the skill assessment but then failed the biographical test are suing in a class action.

Parent is exactly right. There's already a scramble to pin the blame and some in the GOP are looking for DEI: https://bsky.app/profile/andylevy.net/post/3lgxsd35fhs2i

Unfortunately, there's a long-standing scandal and lawsuit around the ATC and its hiring practices that will inevitably play into the analysis of this tragedy -- details here: https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/the-faas-hiring-scandal-...

I can well believe it has absolutely nothing to do with this disaster, but I don't think either political side has any interest in arguing over the fine points of that distinction.

> There are some things in life that don't revolve around identity politics

Not anymore.

The President:

>Asked how he could come to the conclusion that diversity played a role in the deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Trump said, “Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”

>He later defended his assertion that diversity initiatives at the FAA could have contributed to the National Airport crash as the investigation continues.

>“No, I don’t think so at all,” Trump said when asked if he thinks his claims about the helicopter, air traffic control and DEI policies were getting ahead of the investigation. He quipped to the reporter that “I think that’s not a very smart question.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5116606-5-takeaw...

Trump is explicitly blaming programs to hire disabled people. Note that just because FAA had a program to hire people with disabilities, does not mean that they made any changes to the medical standards for air traffic controllers - there are many jobs at FAA besides air traffic controllers, and there are also plenty of disabilities that would not effect a person's ability to be an air traffic controller. FAA does not allow people with psychiatric disabilities to work in ATC.

> “I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here’s one, the FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce said ‘they want them in, and they want them, they can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so. This was January 14, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program,” Trump said.

> “Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it,” the president added.

> When he was asked to clarify why he thought a “diversity push” at the FAA played a role in Wednesday’s collision, President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that “it just could have been.”

> “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a higher, much higher standard than anybody else,” Trump said.

> Trump did not cite any evidence. Source: https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/plane-crash-dca-potomac-was...

On "Truth Social" last night, Donald Trump was explicitly questioning the actions of the ATC. And during this morning's press briefing, he blamed "the crash on Barack Obama, Joe Biden, former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, DEI and people with disabilities." I'm waiting for the transcript on that one.

It came from the new regime, which has a vendetta against certain things and tries to pin everything bad on them.

You might venture to say so, but unfortunately you'd be wrong.

It's been culminating for years. they don't fire incompetent people and they use skin color and gender as a factor in deciding who to hire. It's federal employment and is linked greatly to politics.