heckfarr

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industrie...uble-in-skies/

"Millions of Americans will fly to their summer vacations unaware that some of the men and women in the nation’s air traffic control towers and centers may have cheated on the test to get their jobs.

FOX Business presents TROUBLE IN THE SKIES a six month investigation of the FAA’s new hiring practices which uncovers changes that may put the nation’s flying public at risk as well as allegations that the newest air traffic control recruits had access to answers on a key test that helped them gain jobs with the FAA.

Correspondent Adam Shapiro also uncovers an FAA effort to promote diversity that discarded 3000 qualified college graduates with degrees in air traffic control despite their following FAA procedure and obtaining FAA accredited degrees."

Xyzzy

Is it sweeps week now?

JDiver

The FAA has perennially suffered from thick-headed management. Another issue that needs to be looked at further is outsourcing / contracting rather than using employees for safety-critical positions.

If the FAA hadn't done that, a marijuana-intoxicated Brian Howard would not have set fire to equipment racks in the Chicago Center, paralyzing area air traffic.

If the FAA had fulfilled its contingency mandates for systems backup, the chaos that ensued would have been contained.

I was informally recruited to join the FAA in the late 1960s; I never even replied, much less follow through with an application.

l etoile

The story above is surprisingly well done. The FAA has botched the hiring process. At significant cost, they encouraged ATC-degree programs to be set up at schools throughout the country. Then, instead of hiring the top from those programs as originally stated, they, without word, abandoned them to hire off the street and had a contractor create a test that has no relevance to the position or qualifications necessary. So highly qualified people who trained for the specialty are passed over and unskilled people with no known aptitude are being hired. Unlike the story says, we don't know the washout rate yet; the first hirees are still training and there was just another bid a month or two ago.

TMM1982

Well this is rather scary

joecool1885

What's scary about it? The misleading headline?
Keep in mind this "test" they are referring to is the same one you have to pass to get a job at places like Best Buy or your local Grocery Store... it's a personality test that bears no relevance on aptitude. It's ridiculous that people are cheating on it, but I don't see reason for concern.

TMM1982

It's scary b/c I'd rather them hire the qualified candidates from air traffic school rather than a bum off the street who is taking a personality based exam with absolutely 0 training.

joecool1885

It's not like they take the Off the street hires and hand them a headset and say "good luck"--- training takes from 8 months-4 years depending on the difficulty of the facility. In the end, many off the street hires may perform as well or better than those who had schooling... and those who can't do the job aren't kept around.

TMM1982

Is that determined before or after a mid-air collision?

Xyzzy

l etoile

We don't know how this pans out yet. We do know the FAA has wasted a lot of taxpayer money by committing to one program and abandoning it with no notice. Mostly, they left a lot of people with useless degrees who they had said would have preferential hiring if they graduated highly qualified.

ROCAT

The schools were producing washouts at about the same rate as the off the street. The college training was a joke that did nothing but make money for a bunch of colleges.

l etoile

This is the inaccurate or not fully accurate part of the story. The new hiring program has only just begun. We do not yet have a fully operational center controller from it. As the test was first offered last year, I don't believe there is even a fully operational tower controller from that group.

ROCAT

There are ones that are certified at terminal facilities, historically speaking off the street hires and CTI grads had the same level of success this group will be no different. Anything you do or learn before you hit the floor is rather meaningless.

l etoile

It is all about aptitude.

At this point, this is primarily about affirmative action and deception. What the FAA did was deceitful and ethically wrong. The new program may work out numbers wise (given that errors don't much matter anymore and it's all about training people to keep them, measuring success is difficult), but way too early to judge on pure washouts.

Additionally, one could easily argue the ATC program was at its strongest when the washout rate from the academy was at its highest.