Former FAA safety expert addresses airline DEI controversy, viral United comments

Becoming a commercial airline pilot should be based on merit, not skin color or gender, for the safety of passengers, according to aviation expert Kyle Bailey. 

"Diversity really has nothing to do with safe travel," Bailey told Fox News Digital. 

While Bailey doesn’t believe diversity makes traveling safer, the two have frequently been tied together.

Boeing, which allegedly prioritized DEI hiring in recent years, has found itself in the news after a door on one of the models operated by Alaska Airlines blew off mid-flight. In an X post last week, billionaire Elon Musk asked if customers wanted to fly in an airplane made by a company that prioritizes DEI hiring over safety management. 

ELON MUSK DINGS BOEING AFTER ALASKA AIRLINES SCARE: 'PRIORITIZED DEI HIRING'

Bailey, a former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety team representative, said the FAA has implemented policies to satisfy the left. 

The FAA’s "Diversity and Inclusion" hiring plan says "diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond." The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.

The Department of Transportation (DOT), which oversees the FAA, pushed back on the notion that diversity and inclusion practices impact safety. 

"Safety is the FAA’s top priority and drives all decisions," a DOT spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

"The diversity and inclusion language that is being cited here is the exact same today as it was under the Trump Administration and previous administrations before that. Like many large employers, the agency proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible, all of whom must meet rigorous qualifications that, of course, will vary by position," the spokesperson continued. "The FAA employs tens of thousands of people for a wide range of positions, from administrative roles to oversight and execution of critical safety functions."

However, Boeing and the FAA aren’t the only airline institutions to be criticized for DEI practices. 

UNITED CEO ENRAGES MUSK, LARRY ELDER AND SOCIAL MEDIA FOR VIRAL DIVERSE HIRING COMMENTS: 'THIS IS MESSED UP'

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby went viral this week after remarks he made in 2021 about the company’s diversity initiatives resurfaced. During an interview with Axios on HBO, Kirby said the company was committed to ensuring 50% of their graduating pilot classes would be women or people of color. 

Bailey doesn’t believe such quotas are a "good idea," and feels pilots should be selected based on merit alone. 

"It's basically all a matter of flight time, your credentials, your background, how much flight experience you have, and also your training," Bailey said, adding that Kirby’s comments were likely simply an effort to drum up some positive attention from the media. 

Bailey said that a large percentage of commercial airline pilots began flying when they were as young as 16 years old, so the majority of them have been extremely passionate about the profession from a young age. He said it’s "very hard" for anyone to get the 1,500 hours of flight time required to sit in the cockpit of a commercial airliner, and it’s particularly difficult for women and anyone from a lower-income background. 

"Regardless of what proposed hiring practices are put into place, the bottom line is… piloting is basically a male occupation. You don't find little girls when they're 10 years old saying, ‘Hey, I want to be an airline pilot,’ or playing with little model airplanes or flying model airplanes. It's pretty much a male game, like it or not," Bailey said. 

"As the minorities go, it would be great to get more into the cockpit," he continued. "But still, in these inner cities the money isn't there to fund these individuals." 

FAA’S DIVERSITY PUSH INCLUDES FOCUS ON HIRING PEOPLE WITH ‘SEVERE INTELLECTUAL’ AND ‘PSYCHIATRIC’ DISABILITIES

Some airlines have programs to help out less-privileged candidates, but even funding the training for a few hundred potential pilots won’t put a dent in an industry that needs thousands of experienced pilots. As a result, Bailey explained that hiring pilots based on anything other than merit "will reduce the safety levels" of the airline. 

The unearthed comments by United’s chief executive were criticized by Musk, popular finance news account Wall Street Silver, former California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder and many other social media users. But Bailey doesn’t think backlash to Kirby’s remarks from 2021 will make much of an impact. 

"I think when it comes to political correctness, the woke movement, I think United will be no different than any other big company like Disney. They'll stand by their policies regardless of what the critics say," Bailey said. "They're going with what they perceive as being the right principle, even though it might not be the right thing for safe flight."

United Airlines and Boeing did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The FAA is overseen by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but Bailey doesn’t believe he is "qualified" for such a critical role since he isn’t a pilot and never worked in aviation. 

"He really needs to get himself into the trenches. We don't want to see him, you know, flying around on a government Gulfstream visiting… something a week after it happened. He needs to get down in the trenches and really find out what's going on in the aviation industry," Bailey said. 

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, who oversees the FAA under Buttigieg, has a private pilot certification and spent 15 years as an executive at United Airlines.

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Fox News Digital’s Nikolas Lanum, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Thomas Catenacci and Emma Colton contributed to this report.