Despite Trump’s efforts, airline DEI programs are still risking people’s lives

Three million Americans will board a plane today assuming the pilot earned that seat through merit. They shouldn’t.

For decades, airlines have subordinated safety to diversity quotas.

President Donald Trump rightly recognized this danger: Early on, he ordered the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation to rescind all DEI initiatives and return to merit-based hiring and promotions. But the FAA can, and must, do more.

Federal law makes it illegal to run an airline “without an air carrier operating certificate.”

These certificates must “contain terms necessary to ensure safety” and can be revoked if the “public interest” requires it. So the government has leverage. And the stakes are sky-high.

I analyzed every US commercial flight crash attributed to pilot error since 2000: Women and minorities represent less than 10% of pilots yet were factors in four out of six crashes (66%).

The sample size is small. But precisely because crashes are so rare, the few times they occur it’s important to scrutinize who is at the controls; under DEI’s guiding principle of relying on statistical disparities, it’s certainly enough to raise questions.

It’s not that women and minorities are inherently unable to fly planes, but in practice, pressure for affirmative action too often leads airlines to lower their standards to meet quotas.

Today, major carriers persist in aggressive diversity hiring.

Delta CLO Peter Carter declared in January 2025 that the airline is “steadfast” in its DEI commitments, calling them “critical to our business.”

United’s training academy maintains its goal of ensuring 50% of graduates are women or minorities.

Southwest still pledges to “recruit, hire, and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce.” 

American agreed not to impose illegal quotas, but that leaves plenty of wiggle room.

The need for action is urgent.

The FAA should condition operating certificates on merit-only hiring and verify compliance.

Carriers that resist will find litigation works against them. Discovery will expose how extensively DEI has lowered standards.

Exhibit A: the 2019 Atlas Air crash. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause to be “the inappropriate response by the first officer,” Conrad Aska, a black pilot at the controls.

A check airman (an experienced pilot who oversees quality and safety) described his “piloting performance as among the worst he had ever seen.”

When faced with an unexpected situation in the simulator, Aska would “get extremely flustered and could not respond appropriately.”

NTSB found Aska panicked after accidentally initiating a go-around procedure and flew the plane into the ground.

Atlas remains unrepentant. Its website declares, “Equity and inclusion are deeply woven into our operations.”

Most diversity disasters leave far-from-complete paper trails. Training failures happen behind closed doors. Near-misses can go unreported. Crashes can be blamed on mechanical failure, understaffing or other politically acceptable causes.

The coverup playbook was written in 1994 when Lt. Kara Hultgreen, the Navy’s first female F-14 pilot, crashed and died.

Officials declared it a “gender-neutral accident,” citing engine failure. Her training commander insisted, “We have one standard, and everyone has to meet that.”

These were lies. A whistleblower leaked the true records five months later: pilot error.

Hultgreen had four “downs,” safety violations that would have washed out any male pilot.

Instead, she received “extra training, specialized one-on-one tutoring, and a series of special concessions not normally afforded” other pilots. Lowered standards were a key factor in her death .

That playbook is still in use. Every official explanation now deserves skepticism.

December 2022: A United 777 departing Maui plunged toward the Pacific, pulling up just 750 feet from the water. The NTSB blamed pilot error. The pilot’s name? Never released.

February 2025: A Delta Connection plane flipped upside down on a Toronto runway with a female first officer at the controls. Delta claimed her experience “exceeded” requirements.

The truth? She had just 1,422 hours, below the FAA’s 1,500-hour standard, but permissible under a special exception.

Delta’s statement masked that she had been allowed in the cockpit under a lower standard.

Colgan Air, Buffalo, 2009: The male captain stalled the aircraft, but the female first officer, who’d never flown in icy conditions, made it worse.

“She inappropriately retracted the flaps,” cited by NTSB as a cause of the crash, which killed 50.  

Washington, DC, 2025: A female helicopter pilot ignored repeated air-traffic-control instructions and collided with an American Airlines jet, killing 67.

Officials emphasized communication failures and airspace complexity, not the pilot who failed to follow directions.

Crashes remain rare because aviation technology is exceptional. Airlines assume good software will save subpar DEI pilots.

But DEI has infected the entire supply chain. As DEI hires replace the engineers who built these systems, the last safety valve will disappear.

Airlines have a moral duty to put passenger safety first. Since they lack the courage, the administration needs a strong enforcer to impose merit-first hiring before the next crash.

Daniel Huff is a former White House lawyer in the Office of Presidential Personnel.