of course it works, but seeing as you are being you.
Andrew Brigida, 35, scored 100 per cent in his training exam but claims he was denied a position in an air traffic control tower because the recruitment process of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) favoured diverse candidates.
He is part of a class action lawsuit filed against the federal agency.
Speaking after the disaster that killed 67 people, Mr Brigida claimed that years of diversity hiring meant it was only a matter of time before an accident happened.
“You want to hire the best and the brightest for this kind of job because it is a very stressful job and it can take a toll on you, age you prematurely,” he told The Telegraph.
“You want to make sure that the people that are doing it are the best.”
Mr Brigida graduated from Arizona State University’s collegiate training initiative in 2013 – a partnership program with the FAA that was previously used to train and select the most qualified applicants.
After scoring top marks in his air traffic control selection and training examination, he was placed on a preferred candidate list, until the FAA changed the rules.
Under the Obama administration, the regulator replaced a skills-based test with a biographical questionnaire to attract more diverse applicants.
When Mr Brigida tried again to become an air traffic controller under the new tests, he said he failed the biographical questionnaire because he “didn’t fit the preferred ethnic profile”.
American Airlines flight 5342 in Washington on the FAA’s recruitment policies.
Mr Trump said he candidates with “severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities” had been hired as air traffic controllers.
Mr Brigida said previous administrations were to blame for the air traffic control staffing crisis because they “got too comfortable because there has not been an incident in a long time”.
He said: “There have been plenty of stories of near miss events that have been the cause of staffing issues, it’s surprising that it’s gone on this long without being properly recognised by the government.”
In November 2019, attorneys for Mountain States Legal Foundation sought class action status in a lawsuit for more than 2,500 aspiring air traffic controllers who they say were harmed by the FAA’s racially discriminatory hiring policies.
They argue that the Obama administration endangered public safety by prioritising racial politics and owes compensation for the “grave injustice”.
The FAA and the US transport department are contesting the lawsuit.
With the case expected to go to court early next year with 900 claimants, Will Trachman, the lead counsel, said Joe Biden tried to sweep the diversity scandal “under the rug”.
“This started under Obama but it’s the Biden administration that tried to sweep it under the rug and assert attorney-client privilege over 14,000 documents and has been trying to oppose and dismiss this case,” Mr Trachman said.
“It’s one thing to do it but the Biden administration refused to recognise the error of the FAA’s ways and so they dug in and, in fact, tried to go bigger on diversity measures.”




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