KS Sen. Marshall, without evidence, claims ‘diversity issues’ contributed to plane crash
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall alleged Monday that the Federal Aviation Administration didn’t hire “a lot of qualified white men” to be air traffic controllers in favor of “DEI hires.”
The claim came as the Kansas Republican voiced support for President Donald Trump’s attempts to blame diversity efforts for the crash of a Wichita American Airlines flight over Washington, D.C.
“I think diversity issues did contribute to this accident,” Marshall said.
But there is no evidence that diversity efforts helped cause last Wednesday’s crash.
Democrats and other Trump critics have called attempts by Trump and his allies to blame diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts for the crash racist and premature.
The official National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the midair collision between American Airlines flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter remains ongoing and no findings have been released. The FAA and the Department of Defense are also investigating.
Marshall’s remarks echoed Trump’s comments that diversity hiring initiatives in the FAA left the agency underequipped to prevent the collision over the Potomac River.
Trump has specifically blamed an FAA initiative to hire people with disabilities — despite the fact that the initiative had been in place since 2013 and that there was no evidence that the air traffic controllers at the airport had been hired through the initiative. When asked to back up his claim, Trump has invoked “common sense.”
No dispute exists that the United States is suffering from a shortage of air traffic controllers. A 2023 report commissioned by the FAA found that overtime was at a “historically high level” and that there were about 1,000 fewer fully-certified air traffic controllers in August 2023 than in August 2012, despite the increasing complexity of American airspace.
The report blames several factors, including budget cuts in 2013 that suspended hiring for 10 months and the COVID-19 pandemic, which paused training for eight months. The report also notes that the air traffic controller strike in 1981 — which prompted President Ronald Reagan to fire the strikers — led to a wave of new hires who then retired between 2005 and 2007.
“The FAA admittedly struggled to keep pace with hiring before the mid-2000s and subsequently ineffectively staffed the air traffic controller ranks,” the report says.
The White House and other Trump supporters have pointed to a federal lawsuit filed in 2015 that alleges President Barack Obama’s administration deployed a hiring system for air traffic controllers that favored applicants based on race. The class-action lawsuit has not yet gone to trial.
“What we know for sure is that under Joe Biden, they lowered the standards for people getting into air traffic control. They lowered the standards, and with that, the number of near misses increased seventy percent — it almost doubled,” Marshall said on Monday.
“They’ve been short of air traffic controllers since I ran for Congress, and this is what I think you’re going to find out is there were a lot of qualified white men that they were not hired because they were holding spots for DEI hires.”
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, has accused Trump of politicizing the crash and making racist claims based on no evidence.
“In a moment where traumatized Americans are looking for leadership and unity, the President instead provided baseless speculation, racist lies, and political finger-pointing,” Cleaver said in a statement last week.
“It was a disservice to the American people and the individuals who tragically lost their lives last night, and I hope the President will apologize for such dangerous, divisive, and appalling rhetoric.”
Marshall DEI concerns
Marshall’s stance on FAA diversity initiatives appears to have hardened since he was first asked to respond to Trump’s claims in a call with reporters Friday. On that call, he said he had “no idea” whether DEI efforts contributed, saying that he wanted air traffic controllers hired because of merit.
On Monday Marshall initially suggested that honing in on the cause of the crash based on preliminary evidence would be misguided. He told reporters that it was important “for this week” to focus on the families affected instead of the cause of the crash.
At the same time, the senator made repeated comments about diversity efforts.
“I never walked into a jet, looked at the pilot — and I do. I look at the pilot every time. Who’s flying this thing? I never said, ‘Oh, I hope that’s a DEI hire.’ I hope my pilot is competent,” Marshall said.
Marshall also suggested the helicopter pilot was flying off course, another assertion Trump has made repeatedly. The air traffic control center responsible for managing the busy airspace near Reagan National Airport also bears fault, he indicated.
“Air traffic control should have been all over that helicopter,” Marshall said, adding that one air traffic controller was monitoring both helicopters and planes, which he said “is not the usual protocol.”
A preliminary FAA safety report on the collision found that staffing at the air traffic control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” at the time of the fatal accident.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 12:55 PM.
