Nearly four hundred passengers trapped in a hollow aluminum tube, traveling at over 80% the speed of sound and nearly 40,000 feet in the air. It is an act of faith that everyone involved is the best at what they do: the people who built the aircraft, the airline that operates it, the cabin crew, and the pilots. All the best. But is that true?
— James Albright
Updated:
2024-11-01
Much of this work of fiction has been taken from National Transportation Safety Board accident reports and the news. When major airlines start hiring pilots on things other than skill and experience, bad things happen. This is a work of fiction. Or is it?
1
DEI
The "elephant in the room"
Most major airlines in the United States have embraced the idea of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in their hiring. Is having a diverse work force in the airlines a problem? No, of course not. But when you are hiring pilots, cabin crews, mechanics, and other professionals where skill matters, shouldn't you be hiring the best?
I took the Equity Airlines "mission statement" shown here from one of the major airlines. It seems odd that they don't mention their reason for being: flying passengers safely.
In April 2022, the FAA’s Acting Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Angela McCullough said in a meeting of FAA officials, “We need to talk about ‘ramp to cockpit’ is [sic] there some things we need to look at there? [ . . . ] Particularly in flight ops, their whole program is very heavily male dominated. It just is. And really, it is white male dominated; I mean, let’s just say what it is [ . . . . ] And then let us talk about what could the future look like if we really had this program that is representative of the whole country, right, the whole world."
In a 2013 presentation called “Controller Hiring by the Numbers,” the FAA posed the following question: “What are the relative values of diversity and the prediction of performance / outcomes?” with the following points. “There is a tradeoff between diversity (adverse impact) and predicted job performance / outcomes.” “How much of a change in job performance is acceptable to achieve what diversity goals?”
I think if you asked the traveling public, most would say no tradeoff is acceptable. We should not accept any tradeoff when safety is involved.
2
Equity Airlines, the book
Equity Airlines is based on several major U.S. airlines, meant to reflect their personnel hiring practices. The characters include a cross section of very talented and capable pilots, as well as some who are not talented or capable at all. I base these characters on people I know at these airlines, people they tell me about, and people I've read about in several NTSB accident reports. The pilots hired under previous practices are alarmed by the quality of some (but not all) of the most recent new hire classes. The older flight crews warn these hiring practices will end up with the loss of lives and aircraft. The airlines argue that the safety record of the last twenty-plus years speaks for itself. The book follows a few of these pilots as they try to adapt to DEI, learn first hand the costs, and search for ways to deal with it.
The book is available right now at Amazon.com and other fine book sellers, in paperback and eBook.
3
Equity Airlines, the "merch"
In honor of this latest book, we are opening Code7700.store with a growing number of "merch," including Equity Airlines coffee cups and mouse pads. The "Equity Airlines" label is followed by a caveat, "* Safety is also important," making it clear there is something about Equity Airlines that bears some discussion!