The Matt Walsh Show - June 21, 2025


DEI Is Destroying The Air Travel Industry ｜ Proof For Your Liberal Friend


Episode Stats

Length

21 minutes

Words per Minute

166.50148

Word Count

3,584

Sentence Count

220

Misogynist Sentences

17

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary

United Airlines says it wants to hire 50% of its new airline pilots to be women or people of color, but how many are they actually getting? And why aren t more Black women in the cockpit? To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/sponsors


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We require women and people of color to be involved in the interview.
00:00:06.120 I have never seen a black woman fly a plane.
00:00:09.260 With fewer than 1% of pilots and women of color.
00:00:12.620 In their various public statements and press releases, United Airlines has made it very clear that
00:00:16.720 they are mainly interested in hiring pilots on the basis of skin color and gender rather than competence.
00:00:23.080 In fact, they participated in a Vice documentary back in 2022, United did, about their DEI initiatives.
00:00:31.660 Watch.
00:00:32.940 So we are in a plane right now, about to take off with a student from United's new ABA Academy.
00:00:37.800 A bit nervous, but let's do this.
00:00:42.200 Pure 4 is training to become a pilot with United Airlines, which became the first major airline
00:00:47.460 to launch its own flight school at the beginning of this year.
00:00:50.240 But United is making another push.
00:00:53.620 It said half of its recruits are going to be women or people of color.
00:00:57.660 A pretty ambitious goal for airline pilots who are 93% white and 95% male.
00:01:04.500 Black women make up less than 1% of the pilot industry.
00:01:09.080 I have a confession, guys.
00:01:11.100 I have never seen a black woman fly a plane.
00:01:15.000 What made you want to become a pilot?
00:01:16.580 So I was a flight attendant for three years at a major U.S. airline and absolutely loved it.
00:01:23.020 So a couple of years ago, United decided that 50% of its new pilot recruits are going to be women or people of color,
00:01:29.640 and they're promoting flight attendants to make that happen.
00:01:32.060 Later on in that Vice documentary, it suggested that the point of this initiative is to alleviate the pilot shortage.
00:01:38.920 Well, how is that going?
00:01:40.860 A few days ago, the conservative commentator Ashley St. Clair posed a few questions to United based on some information
00:01:46.240 that she had received, and here's what she wrote, quote,
00:01:49.380 On July 29th, a United plane was nearly totaled after a hard landing.
00:01:54.180 Who was flying that aircraft?
00:01:55.800 Was the co-pilot a former flight attendant who was fired and then rehired through United's DEI program,
00:02:01.340 despite being on a list to not return to United?
00:02:04.180 Am I correct that this individual failed multiple trainings, including simulator training?
00:02:08.640 Am I also correct that United has covered up this DEI disaster and many others?
00:02:12.160 That's the question she posed, again, based on insider information that she had received.
00:02:18.180 Now, United didn't reply, which you may have noticed is something of a pattern.
00:02:22.700 No one thinks we deserve to know anything about what's going on in the cockpits of the planes that we are flying in.
00:02:28.700 You're just supposed to assume that everything's fine and that the flight attendants are transforming into master pilots at United's training academy.
00:02:36.220 But the more you look into the specifics of United's diversity initiatives, the less solid that assumption seems to be.
00:02:44.500 It turns out that United partners with several historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, as a way of recruiting pilots.
00:02:53.260 One of the popular statistics-focused accounts on X, which uses the name IO,
00:02:57.480 notice that two of the schools that United has decided to team up with, which is Delaware State and Elizabeth City State University,
00:03:05.640 are, quote, in the bottom 2% of all undergraduate institutions in the United States.
00:03:10.900 The bottom 2% is where they're finding their pilots.
00:03:15.420 Elizabeth State, the account noted, quote,
00:03:17.760 That's a pretty sobering reality, especially if you plan on flying United anytime soon.
00:03:36.160 Now, to be fair to United, they don't just recruit from HBCUs with no standards.
00:03:40.260 As a writer who goes by the pseudonym Pichi Kenan found, United also recruits from an organization called Sisters of the Skies.
00:03:48.500 Yes, that is an organization that sends pilots to United Airlines, and their acronym is literally SOS.
00:03:56.600 At least you can rest assured that they have a sense of humor at United as your plane is plummeting to the ground.
00:04:02.000 Maybe that will give you a little bit of a laugh.
00:04:04.720 And it gets better. Watch.
00:04:07.260 Jada Williamson's always dreamed of sitting in the cockpit and calling the shots.
00:04:11.880 What I like about flying is you get to see different things you've never seen.
00:04:17.480 But that dream of a career in aviation is a rare one for black girls to accomplish, with fewer than 1% of pilots women of color.
00:04:26.220 It was tough, I won't lie, because there was no one that looked like me.
00:04:29.640 Now, Captain Teresa Claiborne is part of a group of trailblazing black women pilots hoping to increase those numbers.
00:04:36.760 We believe if they see it, they can be it.
00:04:38.360 She was the first black female pilot in the U.S. Air Force and is president of Sisters of the Skies.
00:04:44.940 She is now a United Airlines pilot.
00:04:48.100 Why do you think more black women aren't becoming pilots?
00:04:51.540 It's extremely expensive.
00:04:53.300 I mean, it takes upwards of $100,000 to get your licensing to fly.
00:04:57.180 So, if our young ladies are not seeing it, if their parents don't have the funding for it, then it's not going to happen.
00:05:05.980 Well, that's inspirational.
00:05:07.280 If they can see it, they can be it.
00:05:10.120 You know, that's the kind of thing.
00:05:11.040 If you're flying in a plane, you know, that's what you want out of your pilot.
00:05:16.860 To know that, well, they saw it, at least.
00:05:20.080 That's the qualification that they fall into, that they saw it and they became it.
00:05:26.080 Now, again, this is an organization that's training the pilots that are flying commercial aircraft.
00:05:31.500 And this isn't training, really.
00:05:33.080 It's like a kindergarten classroom.
00:05:35.540 And with these vapid self-help slogans and inspirational slogans, at no point are these people concerned about safety or competence.
00:05:42.720 They want to put black women in the cockpit because they want to inspire more black women, and that makes them feel good.
00:05:51.420 Not because they think they're getting smarter or better pilots.
00:05:54.520 Because if you want to get smarter or better pilots, then that's all you're concerned with.
00:05:58.500 You just go looking for pilots who fit these qualifications, regardless of what they look like.
00:06:02.840 If they happen to be a black woman, then great.
00:06:05.180 If it ends up that you have no black women pilots, then that is also great.
00:06:08.880 Because if you're just hiring and recruiting based on merit, then whoever's in there is the best for the job.
00:06:14.260 And it's fantastic.
00:06:15.660 And this is not just some PR stunt.
00:06:17.340 United is actually falling through on this.
00:06:19.260 According to United's latest corporate diversity report, of the 51 students that graduated from United's first class of pilots,
00:06:25.420 quote, nearly 80% were women or people of color.
00:06:30.040 So they vastly exceeded their target of 50%.
00:06:33.120 And you can just decide for yourself whether they got to that 80% figure because it just so happened that almost all the most qualified people were women or people of color.
00:06:44.420 I mean, if you believe that, then fine.
00:06:47.760 They've almost completely eliminated white men in their training classes.
00:06:52.520 And we're led to believe that this is progress.
00:06:54.780 Meanwhile, pay no attention to the planes plummeting towards the ocean or smashing into the runway, which is happening right now.
00:07:04.020 To be clear, this is a problem that extends far beyond United Airlines.
00:07:07.820 I mean, they're maybe the most vocal about their DEI practices, but every airline does.
00:07:11.700 A few years ago, in February of 2019, an Amazon Air cargo plane, a Boeing 767 operated by a contractor called Atlas Air,
00:07:20.340 plummeted into the Trinity Bay near Houston.
00:07:22.780 Now, what was the reason for that crash?
00:07:25.820 Well, the first officer, Conrad Aska, accidentally pressed the button, giving the plane a massive jolt and thrust, which pitched the nose up.
00:07:34.300 And instead of reacting calmly to the situation, as trained good pilots are supposed to do,
00:07:40.020 he panicked and he forced the control column all the way down.
00:07:43.480 The plane broke through the clouds and disintegrated on impact with the water.
00:07:49.020 Now, Conrad Aska never should have been flying that plane.
00:07:51.800 Prior to joining Atlas Air and Amazon, he had worked for seven different airlines where he developed a reputation for pressing random buttons in emergencies.
00:08:00.680 He would always panic in the simulator and just lose all situational awareness and start pressing buttons.
00:08:07.320 But airlines kept putting him in the cockpit anyway.
00:08:11.360 And that's why, in its final report on the crash, the NTSB cited, quote,
00:08:15.220 systemic deficiencies in the aviation industry's selection and performance measurement practices,
00:08:20.160 which failed to address the first officer's aptitude-related deficiencies and maladaptive stress response.
00:08:25.980 Now, what explains those systemic deficiencies?
00:08:31.080 Well, we can't say for sure.
00:08:32.520 We do know that Conrad Aska was born in the Caribbean nation of Antigua.
00:08:36.660 He was a black man, which certainly checks some diversity boxes.
00:08:40.460 And we also know that Atlas Air's website is full of platitudes about the importance of hiring candidates based on certain characteristics,
00:08:47.080 like their race and gender.
00:08:48.300 So, we can come to some unauthorized theories here about why Conrad Aska was flying that plane.
00:08:57.100 And none of them are very encouraging.
00:08:59.940 Now, this is not to single out Amazon or United or Atlas.
00:09:04.500 This kind of diversity hiring is endemic in the aviation industry.
00:09:07.640 Keenan says that she's received several messages from pilots warning her of this danger in recent days.
00:09:14.260 So, here's one anonymous message that she posted, quote,
00:09:19.900 Every airline has an informal pilot assignment program that makes sure their unfireable DEI problem children are always paired with adult supervision.
00:09:29.220 These programs are maintained by aging boomers who are immune to the Kool-Aid.
00:09:33.720 As these guys retire, every flight will be a roll of the dice.
00:09:39.220 Now, remember back, we just talked about that flight that almost crashed into the ocean.
00:09:42.500 And you had the one person who didn't know what they were doing and pressed the wrong button.
00:09:47.040 And then the other guy that's trying to figure out, is that one of those situations?
00:09:51.580 Was this a babysitting mission?
00:09:53.440 We don't know.
00:09:55.380 This rampant DEI mandate doesn't just extend to airlines either.
00:09:58.720 A few weeks ago on the show, when I predicted that we're due for a major air disaster soon,
00:10:02.520 I talked mainly about DEI-based hiring and air traffic control.
00:10:06.340 There's also a push to diversify the ranks of companies that manufacture and install various airline parts.
00:10:11.560 And that includes companies like Spirit Aerosystems, which is no relation to Spirit Airlines,
00:10:16.760 which manufactured that door that blew out on the Alaska Airlines flight over Portland the other day.
00:10:23.000 Like United and Atlas Air, Spirit Aerosystems' website is full of DEI propaganda.
00:10:27.840 In fact, just days before the door blew out on the plane,
00:10:31.600 Spirit executives were posting eagerly on LinkedIn about their next big diversity event.
00:10:36.420 Meanwhile, the company knew they had more serious problems.
00:10:41.140 Shortly before the door fell off of a passenger plane mid-flight,
00:10:43.940 Spirit Aerosystems was hit with a class-action lawsuit in federal court.
00:10:48.220 And in the lawsuit, investors alleged that Spirit was aware of the systemic defects in their products,
00:10:54.120 but ignored them and falsified documents to hide them.
00:10:57.740 In one instance, the lawsuit alleged,
00:11:01.020 auditors repeatedly found torque wrenches in mechanics toolboxes that were not properly calibrated.
00:11:06.700 This was a potentially serious problem as a torque wrench that is out of calibration may not torque fasteners to the correct levels,
00:11:12.800 resulting in over-tightening or under-tightening that could threaten the structural integrity of the parts in question.
00:11:19.100 But the mechanics didn't want to comply with the audit.
00:11:21.120 Now, obviously, if these accusations are even remotely true,
00:11:35.660 they reveal some very concerning problems at a company that makes critical components for the planes that you are flying in.
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00:12:38.380 Moving on to this, Fox News says the Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers
00:12:43.920 who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions
00:12:48.980 under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website.
00:12:55.380 The FAA's website states,
00:12:56.720 Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy,
00:13:00.780 has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring.
00:13:04.820 They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy,
00:13:10.160 severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.
00:13:13.760 The initiative is part of the FAA's Diversity and Inclusion Hiring Plan,
00:13:17.540 which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel
00:13:22.380 across our nation and beyond.
00:13:25.320 The FAA's website shows the agency's guidelines on diversity hiring
00:13:27.920 were last updated on March 23rd, 2022.
00:13:34.360 So this is part of their diversity efforts is to get in people with disabilities.
00:13:40.120 Now, in fairness, just so that we don't engage in any clickbait hyperbole here,
00:13:46.820 this doesn't mean that United Airlines or Southwest is going to go and hire a blind,
00:13:54.380 mentally disabled dwarf to be a commercial pilot.
00:13:58.280 Now, I wouldn't be surprised if we get to that point, but that's not what this means,
00:14:03.500 at least not yet.
00:14:04.240 There are a lot of other jobs in the airline industry generally,
00:14:08.720 a lot of other jobs in the FAA.
00:14:11.180 And people who defend this policy or any DEI policy will argue that, you know,
00:14:15.480 they still have the same hiring standards in place that they always have.
00:14:19.140 So if they hire somebody with a physical disability or a psychiatric problem,
00:14:22.900 that person is still going to have to pass all the same tests
00:14:25.640 and demonstrate his fitness in the same way as anybody else,
00:14:28.060 which means that if they get the job, then they're qualified.
00:14:31.320 And that's the claim, right?
00:14:34.240 That's the DEI defense.
00:14:36.440 And in theory, that could be true in some cases.
00:14:41.260 Like, if there's a job filing paperwork or whatever at the FAA office,
00:14:46.960 there's no reason why somebody who's hearing impaired
00:14:50.040 couldn't be perfectly qualified to do that job.
00:14:54.000 So in theory, someone who happens to fulfill a DEI quota
00:14:57.180 doesn't need to be unqualified.
00:14:59.600 In theory.
00:15:02.340 But if that's all that was happening, right?
00:15:05.240 If they were just letting anybody apply and then hiring the best of that crop,
00:15:10.980 then you wouldn't need DEI because that was already the case.
00:15:17.020 Okay?
00:15:17.500 But, like, I'm pretty sure that prior to this DEI standard being put up on the website
00:15:23.980 or updated in 2022, prior to that, you know, you could be a hearing impaired person
00:15:31.360 and get a job filing paperwork at the FAA or whatever.
00:15:34.500 I mean, that was already the case.
00:15:36.620 So when you add in DEI, you're adding in something extra.
00:15:43.320 And what are you adding in?
00:15:44.480 Well, the moment you say, we need to get more of this sort of person into these positions,
00:15:51.740 right?
00:15:51.920 You're looking at a particular demographic, whether it's disabled, whether it's black people,
00:15:57.220 whether it's women, and you're looking at demographics and saying, we need more of them
00:16:01.000 specifically.
00:16:02.140 You're not saying, we need more qualified people.
00:16:04.320 You're saying, we need more of those people.
00:16:07.540 And even if you're saying, we need the most qualified of those people into this position,
00:16:11.920 even if that's what you're saying, which even that is not actually, like, that would
00:16:15.780 be better.
00:16:16.360 That would still be terrible.
00:16:17.600 That would be better than what they're actually doing.
00:16:22.380 But the moment you do that, then you are going to end up lowering standards.
00:16:27.020 Because with the current standards, right, before DEI, whatever the standards were, you
00:16:33.920 had however many people you had in whatever demographic, right?
00:16:38.300 And if you want more of that demographic, the standards are going to get lowered.
00:16:43.760 Because with the standards up here, you had, you know, standards were up here, you had X
00:16:48.960 number of people in your favorite demographic.
00:16:52.380 So if you want to get even more, then that means the standards are going down here.
00:16:57.020 And it's insane.
00:16:58.360 It's insane on many levels.
00:16:59.480 It's especially insane because to begin with, if you're looking at the airline industry and
00:17:06.420 you say, well, we have a minority of women, or we have a minority of black people, or we
00:17:10.380 have a minority of disabled people, that's not a problem.
00:17:15.020 Like, why is that a problem?
00:17:18.280 If the ranks are full of people who are qualified and few of the qualified people happen to be
00:17:24.440 female or black or whatever, who cares?
00:17:27.800 It doesn't matter.
00:17:28.920 It doesn't make a difference.
00:17:30.800 It's not a problem that needs to be solved.
00:17:34.580 As long as you're bringing in the most qualified people, whatever the demographic makeup happens
00:17:39.060 to be at the end of that, it doesn't matter.
00:17:41.240 It's not a problem.
00:17:42.080 And so if no one is black that ends up in that camp, not a problem.
00:17:56.360 If you end up with everyone is black, also not a problem, as long as race is not taken
00:18:01.220 into account at all and you're just hiring the best people.
00:18:04.040 But again, that's not how it goes.
00:18:06.940 And here's the CEO of United making it clear how it really works.
00:18:11.060 Listen.
00:18:11.180 How is diversity and diversity targets working into the Aviate Academy?
00:18:15.760 We have committed that 50% of the classes will be women or people of color.
00:18:22.340 Today, only 19% of our pilots at United Airlines are women or people of color.
00:18:27.220 And by the way, from all the data I've seen, that's the highest of any airline in the country.
00:18:31.140 White males don't just dominate in the cockpits.
00:18:32.880 Also, in the C-suite at United Airlines.
00:18:35.420 Well, look, at United, I'm proud of the diversity that we actually have in our C-suite.
00:18:39.100 I think if you look around corporate America.
00:18:41.060 Correct me if I'm saying, though, so this is just based off your website, the people you
00:18:43.500 list as executives, but out of 11 people, three are women.
00:18:46.120 I believe one is a person of color.
00:18:48.440 That's correct.
00:18:50.560 But in corporate America, I think.
00:18:52.740 That's a low bar.
00:18:53.660 How do you raise your own bar?
00:18:55.420 Well, a lot of this is focusing on it.
00:18:57.840 We have programs to.
00:18:59.980 One of the things we do is for every job when we're doing an interview, we require women
00:19:04.600 and people of color to be involved in the interview process.
00:19:07.780 Bringing people in early in their careers as well and giving them those opportunities.
00:19:13.620 Yeah, you know, you got to get those white males out of there, right?
00:19:17.440 You know, the white males, you know, the people that have made air travel into the safest form
00:19:24.640 of travel that's ever existed.
00:19:27.260 The form of travel where you're 35,000 feet in the air and going 400 miles an hour.
00:19:32.620 And that's the safest.
00:19:37.540 So, and the people who predominantly who achieved that were white males.
00:19:42.280 And so how do we thank them?
00:19:44.120 Let's get them out of there.
00:19:45.420 And when I say that the people who predominantly achieved that are white males, I'm not making
00:19:49.920 that up.
00:19:50.260 That's the proponents of DEI are the first to say that.
00:19:53.040 Like, they're the ones who are going to look at it and say, well, historically, it's been
00:19:56.220 a white male dominated field.
00:19:58.280 Okay, so you're the one saying that.
00:20:01.640 Okay, well, also, historically, what has this field achieved?
00:20:06.400 Those white males who are dominating the field, were they doing poorly?
00:20:10.200 Was there an issue?
00:20:11.020 Was there a problem?
00:20:12.320 Were they screwing up?
00:20:14.460 No.
00:20:14.840 Well, the people who not only invented human flight to begin with were white males.
00:20:22.940 And then the people who, even according to the DEI proponents, who made it unbelievably
00:20:27.260 safe were also predominantly white males.
00:20:31.900 So, yeah, we got to get them out.
00:20:33.740 Got to get those numbers down.
00:20:37.160 This is what we're doing.
00:20:37.860 We're looking at, we're saying, okay, here's an industry that's doing fantastically well,
00:20:46.540 has achieved feats unknown to mankind.
00:20:52.420 What's the demographic predominantly responsible for that?
00:20:56.840 Let's single them out and then try to get rid of them.
00:21:03.640 And that's what they're doing now.
00:21:05.000 It is, it is suicidal.
00:21:08.720 Well, I was going to say it's suicidal, but it's not really because the CEO of United probably
00:21:12.160 isn't even flying.
00:21:13.320 Like, he's probably flying private.
00:21:14.980 You know, he's not backing coach on a United flight.
00:21:18.860 So, it's not suicidal for him.
00:21:21.500 I bet you he wants to make sure that people flying his planes that he's on are the most
00:21:25.480 qualified.
00:21:26.600 So, no, it's not suicidal, really, as far as, it's homicidal, actually, is what it is.