Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is launching an investigation after a DailyMail.com report blew the lid off an air traffic controller cheating scandal.
The story published Wednesday exposed how a powerful figure in a massive federal aviation workers association gave test answers to black and minority candidates ahead of a make-or-break test.
The bombshell report revealed audio of Shelton Snow, of the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), promising to give answers in advance before prospects took difficult entry exams.
‘I am about 99.99 percent sure that it is exactly how you need to answer each question,’ Snow can be heard saying.
After reading the DailyMail.com exclusive about Snow, Duffy reposted the story on X and announced a new probe into diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
‘I am launching a full investigation into the DEI hiring allegations at the FAA immediately,’ the secretary wrote.
‘If true, swift accountability will come for those responsible,’ he said, noting the allegations first reported in the DailyMail.com story.
‘We need the best and brightest, not buzzword, DEI hires,’ he shared.
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy announced an investigation into the FAA after a DailyMail.com story earlier this week on a cheating scandal
Just days after taking office in January, President Trump signed an executive order abolishing the government’s DEI agenda and stressed that hiring shouldn’t be on anything ‘other than the brain’
A spokesperson for the secretary did not immediately elaborate on the forthcoming plans when reached for comment.
Duffy’s investigation is a part of President Donald Trump’s wider initiative to rid the executive branch of DEI.
Already the Republican signed an executive order to dissolve DEI-related positions within government and billions of dollars worth of DEI related grants and projects have been canceled by Elon Musk’s DOGE.
When signing the anti-DEI executive order the president stressed that hiring shouldn’t be based on anything ‘other than the brain.’
Snow, however, took the opposite approach, by allegedly providing advanced answers to a select group of people to give them a leg up.
‘There are some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of and I am going to send that to you via email,’ says Snow, an air traffic operations supervisor based out of New York, in the clip obtained by DailyMail.com.
The inside info was made available in 2014 to black, females, and other minority candidates – but whites were left out of the loop to ‘minimize competition.’
Exactly how many applicants were able to capitalize on Snow’s brazen offer to secure coveted controller jobs responsible for the safety of millions of fliers remains unknown.
‘We need the best and brightest, not buzzword, DEI hires,’ Duffy posted on X alongside the report
In audio footage obtained by DailyMail.com, Shelton Snow (pictured), the front line manager of the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), can be heard promising advance access to test answers to minority prospects vying for an air traffic control job in 2014
But one former NBCFAE member, Matthew Douglas, told DailyMail.com: ‘I know several people who cheated and I know several people who are controlling planes as we speak.’
The voicemail comes to light as President Donald Trump vows to purge DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – from U.S. aviation, among other federal agencies, in the wake of the deadly midair collision at Reagan National airport in January that claimed 67 lives.
Snow’s message was recorded just weeks after the FAA announced the biggest hiring shake up in its history during an Obama-era push to ‘widen the aperture’ for women and minorities.
As DailyMail.com exclusively revealed, the federal government agency had controversially replaced its peer-reviewed cognitive exam with a ‘biographical’ quiz asking things like ‘how would you describe your ideal job’ and ‘classmates would remember me as humble or dominant?’
Critics say the quixotic blend of multiple-choice questions was designed to screen out elite, mostly white students from FAA-accredited college courses who excelled in traditional aptitude tests.
Nonetheless, it was proving incredibly tricky for anyone to pass – with a 90 percent failure rate – when Snow decided to intervene.
The then-President of the NBCFAE’s Washington Suburban chapter contacted members in January 2014 with a list of HR ‘buzz words’ to insert into job applications.
‘These buzzwords will flag your resume, thereby giving you the advantage over thousands of resumes that may flood the system,’ he wrote.
Snow also contacted members in January 2014 with a list of HR ‘buzz words’ to insert into job applications
The FAA’s hiring policies came under sharp scrutiny after President Donald Trump controversially blamed the January 29 Ronald Reagan National Airport crash on DEI
At a separate teleconference, applicants were urged to highlight their association with the NBCFAE, the largest employee association within the FAA.
An agenda for the December 2023 powwow read: ‘This is for us to know who our people are in the case that we have one of our own on the board.
‘In the past we’ve always had one and they share our enthusiasm. Can you see the strategy.’
It added: ‘We are only concerned about African-Americans, Women (of every ethnic background), and other minorities.
‘Please ensure that you share this information with no one that is identified outside of that … this is to minimize competition.’
Snow went further in a voicemail, teasing inside info that would prevent NBCFAE-affiliated applicants from flunking the questionnaire.
