As flight delays ease nationwide after days of disruption, a former air traffic controller is placing blame for the FAA's long-running staffing shortages on hiring policies implemented under the Obama administration.
Former air traffic controller Michael Pearson told Newsmax on Thursday the FAA's workforce crisis traces back to 2011, when he asserted the administration "chose color over competency" by discarding a pool of roughly 3,000 qualified applicants and introducing a controversial biographical assessment.
According to Pearson, those applicants had already passed aptitude tests, held relevant college degrees, and completed controller training programs at no taxpayer cost.
"They were ready to enter the system," Pearson said during an appearance on "The Record with Greta Van Sustern." "Instead, the administration made applicants take a biographical assessment, basically to determine what race they were, before being allowed to move forward."
Pearson said the hiring pause and new screening practices remained in place for several years, leaving the FAA with a critical shortage that persists today.
"It takes three to five years to train a controller. That period of not hiring anybody was devastating," Pearson said, adding that controllers are now reporting fatigue and six-day work weeks.
Pearson argued that the staffing gap, not technology, is the FAA's greatest operational challenge. "It doesn't matter how modern the system is if you don't have enough controllers to run it," he said.
While Pearson praised the many controllers who continued working through the recent shutdown, he stressed that the long-term effects of the Obama-era policies are still being felt throughout the national airspace system.
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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