As an investigation is underway following the deadly collision of an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, reports circulated of alleged staffing issues and DEI practices in the FAA.
Fox News host Jesse Watters was one of the voices questioning whether diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in former President Joe Biden’s administration played any part in the Federal Aviation Administration’s role in the crash that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft.
“I can’t imagine what the families are going through right now,” Watters said on “The Five” Thursday. “It’s just horrible.”
A preliminary safety report from the FAA found that staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport’s air traffic control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” The New York Times reported Thursday.
“The controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways. Those jobs typically are assigned to two controllers, rather than one,” The Times report continued, noting the Reagan airport tower “has been understaffed for years.”
“The tower there was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023,” the report said.
Watters pointed to that fact during the Fox News panel’s discussion of the tragic incident.
“At the control tower, they’re supposed to have 30 [air traffic controllers] and they only had 19…,” he said.
“The staffing shortages, Donald Trump is arguing, are a result of DEI policies. You go back to the Obama-Biden administration and they rejected 1,000 well-qualified applicants for air traffic control because they weren’t diverse enough. Joe Biden had a DEI quota,” he explained.
“And this isn’t about black people. A lot of people hear, ‘DEI,’ you think black. No, he is trying to set quotas for people who are deaf to get jobs, people who are dwarves to get jobs, people with transgender issues to get jobs,” Watters continued.
“It’s not about race. It’s every sort of underprivileged person that has issues, and they want to be able to put these in positions at the FAA,” the Fox News host contended.
“They were unable to meet their own DEI quotas, and that’s what is leading to staffing shortages, among many other things. So, is it the main factor? We don’t know,” he added.
“Right now there is a staffing issue and it is weird that there is a staffing issue at the FAA because there is no staffing issue anywhere else in the federal government. Everywhere else in the federal government, there are too many bureaucrats, but the FAA can’t find enough people? That is mismanagement. And that is obvious, and that has been going on for a long time,” Watters said.
“It wasn’t about money. Biden and Trump spent the exact same money on the FAA. This could also have been a medical issue. This could have been a mechanical issue,” he noted.
“We’re not gonna know until we have this investigation, and I just hope we get it really soon,” he concluded.
Watters spoke about the issue during his own “Jesse Watters Primetime” show.
BREAKING: The deadliest air disaster in America since 9/11 — a senseless tragedy. What happened? We now know that one air controller was doing the job of two. They’re supposed to have 30 air traffic controllers in the tower, but they only had 19. The investigation will tell us… pic.twitter.com/c1ZHpcPdMz
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 31, 2025
- ‘I refuse to perpetuate the lie’: Mary Miller recognizes ‘Sarah’ McBride as ‘the gentleman from Delaware’ - February 7, 2025
- Ex-DNC official dishes on who was actually running country under Biden, who Kamala really paid - February 7, 2025
- FCC investigates Soros-backed KCBS radio station for reporting live location of ICE - February 7, 2025
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.