Woke Hiring by Airlines is A Scary Business

American Thinker:
By D.A. Francis

The “woke” culture has infected large areas of our lives over the last few years. Much of it has just been annoying, but a new example could actually be dangerous.

That is the push to hire and staff our airline cockpits with pilots chosen primarily for their gender or race, which I believe to be a very dangerous concept.

Before I comment further, I should explain my background and credentials to speak on the matter. I flew for nearly thirty-seven years, the majority of that time as a Captain, for Trans World Airlines on domestic and international routes. During that time I served as an instructor and line check pilot on several types of jet aircraft, training co-pilots and captains new to the equipment.

In this capacity, I worked with females and members of various minority groups, including African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian Americans. All these pilots, as well as their Caucasian counterparts, were consummate professionals. That was because TWA hired new crew members only on essential criteria—flight experience, intelligence, and demonstrated competence. More importantly, the hiring process was conducted by pilots, not non-flying HR types or managers from other departments of the airline.

Recently, United Airlines announced a plan to establish a flight school to train new pilot candidates. These pilots will replace pilots reaching mandatory retirement age and allow for the airline’s planned expansion. There is nothing wrong with this concept, which in fact has been used by some foreign airlines for many years.

In the past, airline-established schools of this type were never deemed necessary in this country due to the fact that our nation produced military-trained pilots in large numbers, many of whom joined the airlines when their military commitments expired. In addition, there were substantial numbers of civilian-trained pilots from corporate aviation who could be hired as well if needed.

All that has changed in recent years due to a scaling back of military pilot training and an emphasis on the use of unmanned “drones” which are manipulated by individuals at computer terminals thousands of miles away. In addition, the cost of obtaining the necessary pilot certificates has skyrocketed due to the cost of aviation fuel and the cutback in the production of suitable light planes to be used primarily as trainers. This situation, combined with the steady takeover of the hiring and firing of all corporate employees by human resources departments, has created what may become a perfect storm of circumstances that could make the skies above our nation a very dangerous place to be indeed. read more. h/t NAAC.