Will a MAGA win lead to safer skies?
By Captain Mzungu
29 January 2024
As a retired commercial airline pilot now involved in flight simulator training, I tend to pay particular attention to aircraft incidents and accidents. It’s an occupational hazard really, most pilots do the same.
A short four weeks into 2024 and the skies seem rather unsafe, wouldn’t you say? In the United States alone, Alaska Airlines lost a B737 fuselage door at 16,000 feet, leading to a full depressurization of the cabin, I woke up last week to the news of an Atlas Air B747-800 freighter returning to Miami International airport with an engine on fire.
Each of these incidents are complex and besides the official reports are not yet in. However, some salient points are emerging. One central question begs to be asked: has DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), the political left’s new obsession, played a role in these mishaps and would a MAGA win in 2024 render skies safer for everyone?
I’ve flown and trained hundreds of pilots in my career, from all different backgrounds, all cultures, languages, and ethnicities, all with different talents and capabilities, all with different personalities. So let me say this as vehemently as I possibly can: there are fields and industries out there where DEI has absolutely no place to be, commercial aviation being one of them.
I’m not saying minorities — in however a twisted, politically motivated way one would define the term — don’t belong in the cockpit. No, what I am saying is airlines should screen, hire and train airline pilots according to meritocracy not wokeness.
And then of course I stumbled upon the website of the United Airlines “Aviate” academy. The photographs are really all one needs to glimpse at to get an idea of where United stands. Of the twenty of so website pictures showing United Airlines new hires in training, you’d have to look very closely to find an average white boy. Most pics are of “minorities” and most of them are wearing surgical masks. You get the picture.
Will wokeism beat meritocracy in airline pilot selection and training?
I’ll let you in another industry secret while we’re on the subject: facilitation. That’s the newest obsession in airline training nowadays. Instructors practicing the “sage on the stage” style of instruction are highly frowned upon. We are now supposed to be the “guide by your side.” What it practically means is that airline pilots, whether seasoned or in training, are supposed to debrief themselves. Facilitation is not a bad idea in itself of course, but most professional instructors out there believe that a straight shooter type of flight instruction, sometimes leading to a bruising of egos, should not completely be abandoned. It’s almost as if this new generation of pilots is more fragile, more delicate, more subject to anxiety and could not handle a direct constructive criticism. It all has to be facilitated now.
And this leads me back to the question I asked in the title of this article: will a MAGA win lead to safer skies?
A true MAGA win, whether headed by Donald Trump or another genuine MAGA candidate, could be the first step in a paradigm shift of attitudes in everything dealing with commercial aviation, from the FAA to aircraft manufacturers and airlines. No more DEI, no more woke-imposed solutions to problems. An authentic and heartfelt return to meritocracy, the same meritocracy that enabled America to put a man on the moon in the sixties.
MAGA = safer skies for everyone.