For one veteran airline captain, a routine flight to Denver changed her view about aviation safety—but not because of an in-flight crisis.
Rather, the captain heard a story that—for the first time in her decades-long career—made her uneasy about putting her loved ones on a plane.
During a 2024 conversation, a flight instructor described unusual steps managers took to salvage the career of a young female trainee pilot. The instructor described an “egregious” example of standards apparently being relaxed to meet DEI goals, the captain said.
The trainee repeatedly failed rudimentary pilot-training tests. By “crashing” a computer simulation “flight,” she proved her inability to operate an airplane’s three most basic control mechanisms, the instructor said.
Yet management balked when the instructor failed her.
“She was rehabilitated and allowed to continue, even though she should have been washed-out,” the captain said.
“I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, that is concerning to me,” she told The Epoch Times, speaking on condition of anonymity because her employer did not authorize her to speak to the press.
Disturbed that such a trainee may still be in the cockpit, the captain said: “I don’t want myself or my family to be in the back of that airplane. … That’s really what it comes down to, right? Would you want to be in the back of that airplane?”
The captain, a woman who was hired long before diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs took hold, said the story of the trainee shows how far her airline was willing to go for the apparent sake of DEI.
These programs—aimed at boosting women and minorities—remain entrenched at airlines, despite President Donald Trump’s DEI-ending executive orders and growing concerns over air crashes and safety incidents, the captain and other workers say. The captain pointed to signs of additional inept trainees being “pushed through.”
After simulator training, trainees fly an actual aircraft under the guidance of “line-check airmen.” These expert pilots report that some students are now taking four times as long to finish a mandatory training, the captain said.
Frustrated, some of these line-check airmen are stepping aside; one told the captain, “I saw the quality of pilots that we were hiring, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”
When paired with new hires, experienced pilots increasingly find themselves intervening to avert accidents or incidents, straining veteran captains to exhaustion, one flight attendant said.
The DEI Debate
Across the United States and globally, many employers, including airlines, have promoted DEI programs. The goal is to attract and retain people from “underrepresented” groups—based on gender, race, or other identifying characteristics. But favoring certain sections of the population over others is unfair, discriminatory, and can chip away at safety, airline employees say.
Four flight attendants, six current pilots, a retired pilot, and an industry expert all told The Epoch Times they support attracting more women and minorities to aviation—but not if standards are lowered to do so. They concur that DEI initiatives have gone overboard. Nearly all the interviewees asked that their names be withheld because their employers did not authorize them to speak to the press. But a whistleblower, Capt. Sherry Walker, who filed a federal complaint in April, agreed to be named on condition that her employer remain unidentified.
The DEI landscape has changed in recent months, following Trump’s Jan. 21 order to discontinue DEI at federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The order also applies to federal contractors such as airlines.
Employers appear to be clinging to DEI, but it’s less obvious now—probably because of Trump’s order, complaints, and lawsuits, workers say.
Instructors oversee student pilots during a training session in a flight simulator at Farmingdale State College in Farmingdale, N.Y., on Feb. 28, 2023. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
An FAA employee who requested anonymity told The Epoch Times that the agency “just moved around” pro-DEI personnel and “changed their titles.” Thus, DEI remains “built into the system,” he said. “They just do whatever they want; there’s no mechanism of enforcement.”
Airline employees made similar statements.
Employees claim that airlines appear to be generally ignoring the mental and physical health risks prevalent among people who identify as transgender—a subgroup that airlines typically have embraced in “inclusivity” efforts. Some workers also allege that airlines are force-feeding gender ideology to them via mandatory training sessions, violating their religious rights.
Seeing DEI persist is particularly troubling in a safety-dependent industry such as aviation, employees say.
Most of the interviewees, however, said they don’t want to scare people, and believe air travel remains safe. Still, they warn that safety is eroding for multiple reasons, including DEI. One flight attendant said if the public knew the safety-threatening factors that employees see, “they would stop flying altogether.”
These airline professionals urge their industry to divorce itself from distractions such as DEI initiatives. And some are calling upon the Trump administration or Congress to step in if airlines refuse to change.
Asked to address concerns that DEI could affect safety, Airlines for America—which advocates for U.S. air carriers—released a statement to The Epoch Times: “Safety is, and always will be, the top priority for U.S. airlines … [members of Airlines for America] comply with all federal regulations and laws, including those related to training, certification and licenses.”
DEI advocates assert that a diverse workforce is a stronger one. According to an article posted on the Florida Tech University website, greater diversity leads to better innovation, greater market share, and higher profitability.
Defenders of DEI also assert a lack of evidence that DEI factored into accidents and other incidents that have made U.S. air travelers leery in recent months.
“To date, there have been no public accusations of inflight incidents or accidents tied directly to employees that were unqualified for their jobs as pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers, dispatchers, engineers, or any other FAA-licensed personnel,” William J. McGee, a senior fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, wrote in a January op-ed.
McGee, citing an unnamed FAA inspector, said that DEI has never been about recruiting or promoting unqualified applications, but about seeking “qualified applicants from previously overlooked pipelines.”
Big Four Lead The Way
Even before Trump’s orders reversing DEI programs, three of the nation’s biggest airlines—American, Southwest, and United—agreed “to end illegal, discriminatory hiring practices, including quotas and benchmarks for recruiting and hiring based on race and sex,” according to America First Legal, a conservative watchdog. The trio of airlines took that action late last year to settle a DEI complaint filed with the Labor Department.
As of early May, Southwest’s rebranded DEI program—now called “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging”—“appears to be living loud and proud,” a pilot told The Epoch Times. “They don’t appear to be backing off one iota.”
A traveler walks past a Southwest Airlines airplane as it taxies from a gate at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, Md., on Oct. 11, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Will Scolinos, legal counsel for America First Legal, said his organization is prepared “to ensure that DEI is not ‘alive and well’ at these airlines,“ referring to those named in the Labor Department complaint. He didn’t say why that complaint omitted Delta Air Lines, which is among the U.S. airlines commonly called ”The Big Four.”
Delta says on its website: “We actively seek diversity, boldly pursue equity, and consciously promote inclusion to create a sense of belonging for all people.”
In an email to The Epoch Times, Scolinos said that if any airline “engages in unlawful DEI, then it exposes the company to potential enforcement investigations and actions by multiple federal agencies.”
The Epoch Times contacted all four major U.S. airlines about DEI concerns. None responded prior to publication.
In January, when United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was asked about DEI policies during a call with investors, he stated, “we’ll continue to hire based on merit … we can hire the absolute best of the best and have a naturally diverse workforce.”
At a Trump inauguration event on Jan. 20, Kirby posted on social media that he was looking forward to “working with the new administration.”
In a widely circulated Axios/HBO interview, Kirby reiterated the airline’s commitment to filling 50 percent of its aviation-academy classes with women and minorities—a goal the airline first announced in 2021.
Critics say that goal is unrealistic, considering that the entire U.S. workforce is about 77 percent white and 53 percent male. As of 2021, only 5.3 percent of all aircraft pilots and flight engineers in American commercial aviation were women; 6.1 percent were Hispanic, about 4 percent were black, and 1.5 percent were Asian, according to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby speaks during a joint press event with Boeing at the Boeing manufacturing facility in North Charleston, S.C., on Dec. 13, 2022. Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
Playing the ‘Perception Game’
DEI “amps up” risk factors that come along with flying, Buzz Patterson, a retired military and commercial pilot with 35 years of experience, told The Epoch Times.
“You’re putting an aluminum tube in the air … going to 500 miles an hour, at 35,000 feet,” he said. Pilots also face volatile weather conditions, among other variables. Crews need to be ready to react; they have little room for error, Patterson said.
Many people have no idea “how fragile the system is … and these added stressors can be critical in whether an incident becomes an ACCIDENT,” another pilot wrote to The Epoch Times.
Before Patterson left Delta in 2016, he saw DEI gaining a foothold there.
Now DEI permeates the airline industry, Patterson said, and he believes hiring standards and performance have deteriorated because of it.
Increasingly, fellow pilots have confided: “I had to basically ‘solo’ the airplane today, because my copilot was inept and under-qualified and inexperienced.”
“That’s scary,” Patterson said.
Now, DEI criteria seem to be elevated above individuals’ qualifications, he said.
“Back in my day, it was dog-eat-dog, and they didn’t care what your color or sex was,“ Patterson said. ”They just wanted you to be the best they could possibly hire; that is not the case today.”
Aviation expert Jay Ratliff accused airlines of “playing the perception game“ by showing ”how much we care” about select groups of people. “Let’s stop talking about perception and make things safer,” he told The Epoch Times.
Patterson and others warned that while airline executives might be trying to please investors and lenders who consider DEI scores, any such DEI-related benefits can be negated if a DEI-related distraction or a less-qualified crew member causes fatalities, injuries, or aircraft damage.
A current pilot cited “the cost of retraining these pilots that can’t make the grade.”
Chin-ting Chou (L) of Taiwan and Nemanja Nedelikovic of Serbia take a training course on a 737 jet simulator at the Pan Am Flight Academy in Miami Springs, Fla., on May 19, 2022. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Problems Brewing for Years
Concerned airline workers have been sounding the alarm since at least 2022, when The Epoch Times revealed DEI was causing unintended negative effects in the U.S. airline industry.
Then and now, the interviewed workers assert that airlines often give preferential treatment to people in “protected” groups—ethnic minorities, women, and those with alternative sexual or gender ideologies.
Besides being allowed repeated attempts to pass skills tests, people in those groups often violate conduct rules without consequence—and have no qualms about reporting coworkers to management for the smallest perceived slight.
Interviewees said an innocent remark such as “hey, guys,” can lead to disciplinary action; it may be considered “misgendering,” because it excludes females and men who identify as transgender.
“I’m totally afraid of ‘misgendering;’ I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing,” a woman pilot with decades of experience told The Epoch Times, adding that she believes her pro-DEI union would not defend her if she faced discipline.
This creates a chilling effect on employee communication. Now, employees talk less with each other, hoping to avoid issues, and they’re fearful that management will retaliate if they report concerns about people in DEI categories.
Thus, “diversity hires” may get away with failing to arm exit doors, neglecting required safety checks, and using their phones even during critical phases of flight, such as takeoffs and landings, a flight attendant said.
A flight attendant exits a Delta Airlines flight at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on July 22, 2020. Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images
Tragedy Heightened Concerns
A recent catastrophe ignited a wave of airline scrutiny and backlash against DEI early this year.
On Jan. 29, a midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Eagle airliner killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, near Washington.
Statements from Trump and others fueled speculation that DEI may have played a role.
Despite his disclaimers that much remained unknown as investigations continued, critics pounced on Trump for making anti-DEI remarks “without evidence.”
Trump said some of his predecessors, including President Joe Biden, had lowered FAA standards for air-traffic controllers for DEI reasons.
A class-action lawsuit representing about 1,000 litigants alleges that President Barack Obama’s administration “dropped a skill-based system” for choosing and hiring air-traffic controllers. The FAA “replaced it with a new system designed to favor applicants on the basis of their race,” the Mountain States Legal Foundation said in an article about the case it filed in 2015.
The Washington crash raised questions about the performance of an unidentified air-traffic controller and the young female helicopter pilot. It also renewed longstanding concerns about antiquated FAA equipment and a shortage of air-traffic controllers. At the time of the crash, one controller was handling duties usually assigned to two employees.
Trump blamed “a confluence of bad decisions” for the tragedy. Both before and after the crash, Trump took steps to reinforce air-travel safety; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has repeatedly announced new initiatives to hire more air-traffic controllers and modernize the FAA.
Whatever its causes, the Washington collision was the first multi-fatality crash for a U.S. commercial airliner in nearly 16 years.
Lamenting the end of that safety streak, an experienced Texas-based pilot decided it was time to air her long-simmering concerns.
However, doing so landed Capt. Sherry Walker in hot water with her employer. Now considered a whistleblower, Walker has filed a federal complaint over the airline’s alleged retaliation. The Epoch Times is not naming the airline, at Walker’s request.
Capt. Sherry Walker, a longtime airline pilot, in an undated photo. Walker has filed a federal complaint alleging that the airline retaliated against her for raising concerns about DEI practices in the industry. Courtesy of Sherry Walker
In early February, Walker—who also serves as a flight instructor and college professor—compiled an 80-page report on “the impact of DEI-based hiring in U.S. airlines.”
She sent the report to members of congress and senators who head aviation-related committees, calling for them to remedy problems that DEI is causing at U.S. air carriers and at the FAA.
Walker pointed to signs that all four major airlines appeared to be continuing DEI practices despite Trump’s executive order. She also contended that airline practices don’t align with another presidential order, which bans transgender people from military service because they are “not combat-ready/capable.”
“Why is it acceptable that airline pilots with the same diagnosis are allowed to fly the nation’s troops … or the general public, for that matter?” she asked.
The FAA did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
Walker outlined how the FAA’s “DEI-driven” policies have created distractions and even disrupted service.
In 2024, the FAA began removing gender-specific language and “replacing standard aviation terminology,” Walker wrote, diverting time and effort from “mission-critical safety priorities.”
In this handout image from the French Interior Ministry, search and rescue teams attend to the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus in the French Alps near Seyne, France, on March 25, 2015. Germanwings Flight 4U9525, en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, crashed in the southern Alps. All 150 passengers and crew are believed to have died. F. Balsamo/Gendarmerie Nationale/Ministere de l'Interieur via Getty Images
Walker’s report to Congress traces concerns about the FAA’s transgender policies back to 2012.
That year, under pressure from transgender advocates, the FAA stopped requiring “extensive psychiatric evaluations” for pilots who identified as transgender, the report said. Yet the FAA still insists upon those tests for pilots diagnosed with other mental-health issues.
In 2015, during a flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, when a Germanwings pilot left the cockpit to use the restroom, the co-pilot locked him out. The co-pilot then flew the aircraft into a mountainside in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
A crash investigation report says the co-pilot had a history of depression and psychoses, with no mention of any transgender influence. Still, the Germanwings crash heightened concerns to the point where “many pilots worry every time they leave the cockpit to use the lavatory when flying with gender dysphoric pilots,” Walker wrote.
Her report also cites a growing body of research suggesting that so-called “gender-affirming” hormone treatments can cause aggression. They also may increase chances of heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots—any of which could incapacitate a pilot during flight.
Walker, who is white, has noticed passengers looking askance or scoffing at her and pilots who are non-white—apparently assuming they got hired because of their demographic attributes.
They have no idea that Walker and some of her peers were hired pre-DEI.
Thus, DEI policies can “backfire,” she said, reflecting badly on the very same groups that the policies intend to benefit.
Objections to Ideology
In her report to Congress, Walker also raised concerns about airlines that appear to be violating employees’ religious rights because of DEI.
Specifically, she said United and Southwest airlines were subjecting employees to anti-discrimination training that also required affirmations of gender-ideology principles.
A Southwest pilot told The Epoch Times that many employees there were on the verge of “revolt” over a training that is presented as an anti-sexual harassment lesson. “But when you watch it, you find out that it has ideological statements, such as, in short: Men are sometimes women. Women are sometimes men.”
That didn’t sit well with him and others who say these concepts violate Christian beliefs. “People like me read this and say, ‘You know, I never promised to do this when I got hired to fly airplanes here,’” the pilot said.
This year, he said, the airline has been denying religious exemptions for these lessons, “leaving employees to either lose their employee status or violate their beliefs,” the pilot said. “It’s unbelievable.”
A United Airlines flight crew walks through the terminal at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on April 12, 2020. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Alleged Retaliation Over Revelations
After sending her concerns to Congress in February, Walker gave interviews to several people in the news media, citing her role as an aviation professor at Indiana Wesleyan University. Her statements gained millions of views, putting Walker under her employer’s scrutiny, her lawyer, Lee Seham, told The Epoch Times.
Seham, who is based in New York and has devoted his professional life to airline-related cases, filed a complaint alleging that Walker was wrongfully subjected to “discriminatory treatment and retaliatory discipline.”
Walker’s statements constituted “protected activity,” he said, under a law that shields whistleblowers from any “adverse action” for disclosing airline-safety-related information.
Company officials called Walker into a meeting on April 14. They warned her that employees cannot discuss company-related matters without prior approval, while conceding that Walker’s media statements did not name the company.
Airline officials told Walker “that her conduct had compromised ‘safety,’” the complaint says, warning she could face discipline if she speaks out again.
This action against Walker follows a 27-year, unblemished record as “an exemplary pilot,” the complaint said. It also points out that Walker holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in aviation-related disciplines.
United Airlines pilot Steve Lindland receives a COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sandra Manella at United's onsite clinic at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on March 9, 2021. Scott Olson/Getty Images
What’s Next?
Walker is asking the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to order the company to remove a warning letter from her personnel file; to halt alleged “discriminatory practices,” and to provide Walker with compensation, including attorney’s fees and expenses.
If the case is not settled, it will go before an administrative law judge who handles disputes with government agencies. Seham said the company has not yet responded to Walker’s complaint.
Nor have the congress members and senators to whom Walker directed her report: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.); and Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) and Sam Graves (R-Mo.).
She wants them to demand “reports from all major airlines regarding hiring practices” to see if they are complying with Trump’s DEI-ending order. Congress members also ought to investigate airline employees’ religious-infringement complaints, “ensure the FAA returns to standard phraseology,” and “demand the FAA address the medical certification of transgender pilots.”
Airline Capt. Tom Oltorik, a former military pilot who heads a Florida organization that advocates for citizens’ rights, told The Epoch Times that DEI requirements and COVID-19 vaccination mandates have demoralized airline employees—which affects safety in an insidious way.
“Employees going the extra mile at work is an extremely valuable commodity in safety and efficiency of any operation. Once employees lose confidence in executive leadership, they become despondent and unengaged,” he said. “That’s when you start having small mishaps that lead to the big problems.”
