Airlines promised passengers diversity would make flying safer.
That sales pitch just crashed and burned.
And a former White House lawyer exposed one jaw-dropping fact about pilot error that has airlines scrambling.
Airlines Defy Trump's Order and Double Down on DEI
President Trump ordered the Department of Transportation to end DEI practices in aviation early in his presidency.
Airlines told him to pound sand.
Delta's chief legal officer 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 Airlines agreed not to impose illegal quotas, but that's corporate speak for "we'll find another way to do exactly what we want."
These airlines watched Trump's executive order and decided their diversity agenda matters more than his direct command.
The Numbers Airlines Pray You Never See
Former White House lawyer Daniel Huff analyzed every plane crash caused by pilot error since the year 2000.
What he found should make you think twice before boarding your next flight.
Female and minority pilots caused 66% of all pilot-error crashes since 2000 despite making up less than 10% of the pilot workforce.
Read that again.
Huff serves as a senior advisor for The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, former counsel to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, and held senior legal positions at HUD and in the first Trump administration.
The Left will scream "racist" and "sexist" instead of explaining why the math works out that way.
Atlas Air Flight 3591 Shows What Happens When Diversity Trumps Safety
Conrad Aska's record should have banned him from ever sitting in a commercial cockpit.
The National Transportation Safety Board called his training performance "among the worst" they had ever seen.
Instructors described Aska as someone who would get "extremely flustered and could not respond appropriately" when faced with unexpected situations in the simulator.
He failed training at two regional airlines.
Then he lied about it on his job application to Atlas Air.
On February 23, 2019, Aska was co-pilot on Atlas Air Flight 3591 carrying cargo for Amazon from Miami to Houston.
He incorrectly believed the Boeing 767 was about to stall and pushed it into a fatal nosedive.
The plane crashed into Trinity Bay near Houston.
All three crew members died on impact.
The NTSB discovered Aska had concealed his training disasters at previous employers.
An NTSB board member said he was "miffed why this pilot was allowed to continue in the cockpit."
Here's the kicker.
The FAA was supposed to implement a pilot records database after the 2009 Colgan Air crash that would have flagged Aska's problems.
Congress mandated it.
The FAA missed the deadline.
The database still wasn't finished when Atlas hired Aska in 2017.
Atlas Air's director of training admitted they would not have hired Aska if they had known his full training record.
Three men died because bureaucrats couldn't meet a deadline.
Female Helicopter Pilot Ignored Direct Orders Before Deadly Potomac Crash
The 2025 Potomac River collision killed 67 people after a female helicopter pilot ignored her co-pilot's warning to turn.
Captain Rebecca Lobach was piloting a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on January 29, 2025, during a training mission near Reagan National Airport.
An American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people was on approach to land.
Fifteen seconds before the crash, flight instructor and co-pilot Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves asked Lobach to change course by making a sharp left to the east river bank.
She didn't do it.
Seven seconds before impact, the airliner lined up with the runway.
One second before the collision, the jet tried to pitch up.
Too late.
The helicopter exploded on contact.
Both aircraft plummeted into the icy Potomac River.
Everyone died.
The NTSB investigation found the helicopter was flying at 278 feet when it should have been at or below 200 feet according to the designated helicopter route.
Eaves gave Lobach a direct instruction 15 seconds before everyone died.
She ignored him.
That's not a systems failure.
That's a pilot who seemingly couldn't handle pressure when it mattered most.
What Airlines Are Hiding From Passengers
You know what nobody's talking about?
How many near-misses involved pilots who shouldn't have been in the cockpit.
How many times a co-pilot had to take over because the diversity hire froze up.
How many training failures get swept under the rug because airlines are terrified of discrimination lawsuits.
The Atlas Air crash was about a hiring system so broken that a pilot who failed at multiple airlines could lie his way into a cockpit and kill three people.
The Potomac crash was about a helicopter pilot who had her co-pilot warning her with 15 seconds to save 67 lives and she failed to execute a simple turn.
When 10% of pilots are causing 66% of crashes, you don't have a training problem.
You have a hiring problem.
Airlines chose diversity quotas over passenger safety.
The FAA chose political correctness over doing its job.
And 70 people are dead in just these two crashes alone.
Delta says DEI is "critical to our business."
You know what should be critical to their business?
Not killing passengers.
United wants 50% of its pilot classes to be women or minorities regardless of whether they're the most qualified candidates.
Southwest is still recruiting based on skin color and gender instead of who can actually fly the plane.
These airlines are gambling with your life every time you board one of their flights.
They're betting the next Conrad Aska won't be piloting your plane.
They're hoping the next Rebecca Lobach won't freeze when your jet needs her to move.
And when the next crash happens, they'll blame everything except their diversity hiring that put an unqualified pilot in the cockpit.
The data is screaming at us.
Airlines aren't listening.
The question is whether you'll keep flying with them anyway.
Sources:
- Not the Bee, "Former White House lawyer says female and minority pilots caused 66% of pilot-error crashes since 2000," January 26, 2026.
- KHOU, "NTSB: Pilot in deadly Atlas Air crash lied about training issues," July 14, 2020.
- National Transportation Safety Board, "Rapid Descent and Crash into Water, Atlas Air Inc. Flight 3591," July 14, 2020.
- ABC13 Houston, "Pilot in Atlas cargo plane crash 'was train wreck in training,' NTSB says," July 14, 2020.
- Wikipedia, "2025 Potomac River mid-air collision," January 28, 2026.
- NPR, "NTSB blames 'deep' systemic failures for deadly midair collision near Washington, D.C.," January 27, 2026.
- WJLA, "New report reveals critical errors in Potomac midair collision that killed 67 people," April 27, 2025.
