Pilot: Air Traffic Controller Crisis Traces to Obama-Era Hiring

Aviation expert and former Marine pilot JP Tristani said Wednesday on Newsmax that today’s air traffic controller shortage — and resulting safety concerns — can be traced back to diversity-focused hiring implemented during the Obama administration.

Tristani blamed current air traffic controller issues on hiring changes initiated under President Barack Obama and warned that safety risks could increase unless staffing and system upgrades are addressed urgently.

Appearing on “Finnerty,” Tristani pointed to Obama-era diversity, equity, and inclusion policies as a root cause of today’s controller shortage.

“Well, you can blame it all the way back to Obama when he changed the eligibility to be hired by air traffic control out of Oklahoma,” Tristani said. “He was the one who stressed both race [and] sex — too much whiteness [and] too few women. It started really there and then it compounded its way right up through Congress, not paying attention to a system that was using 1990s technology.”

Tristani’s comments follow a radar and communications failure on April 28 that left Newark Liberty International Airport without functional air traffic oversight for 90 seconds. The failure, caused by a fried copper wire, triggered mass delays and controller walkouts. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said many workers took trauma leave after the incident.

According to an anonymous airspace controller cited in reports, Newark has lost contact with pilots “at least eight or nine times in recent months.” Tristani said passengers shouldn’t panic but acknowledged the region’s air traffic complexity is not being handled properly.

“It’s still a safe transportation system,” he said. “But let’s look at it. … Newark is one small airport. In this particular area, you have a 25-mile circle. You have two major international airports — both Newark and Kennedy. Then you have a minor international airport, LaGuardia. And then you have one of the most heavily trafficked general aviation airports, Teterboro, over in New Jersey.”

Tristani added that numerous small airports in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Long Island, New York, add to the regional air traffic burden — one he says is not being adequately addressed.

He also raised concerns about how the Federal Aviation Administration manages personnel amid the shortage.

“The staffing problem has two areas of concern to me,” Tristani said. “One is due to a shortage of traffic controllers. The FAA is mandating six-day workweeks. Then they’re also mandating overtime.”

He warned that this could push controllers beyond their limits in an already high-pressure job.

“If you want to build up a stress level in a highly stressful profession, then that’s the really dumb way to do it — or the best way to do it.”

United Airlines has said 20% of FAA workers walked off the job following the April 28 incident and cited staffing issues as the cause of the delays. Critics have blamed the Biden administration for continuing DEI hiring priorities, pointing to a February report alleging that qualified applicants were rejected for being “too white and elite.”

Tristani’s assessment echoed those concerns, saying the long-standing failure to update outdated systems while emphasizing racial quotas has left the system — and passengers — vulnerable.

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