In a press conference yesterday, US President Donald Trump blamed diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration for the deadly crash that occurred over Washington DC, without providing evidence.
Trump suggested that the hiring guidance for the FAA’s diversity and inclusion programme included preferences for those with disabilities involving "hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism".
According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the hiring programme has been a longstanding FAA policy - including before, during and after Trump’s first term.
But, the FAA has a range of roles beyond air traffic controllers, and its website doesn’t indicate that hires from diversity schemes would necessarily be working in air traffic controller positions.
And, in response to criticisms over diversity hiring practices last year, the agency released a statement asserting that all new hires must meet "rigorous qualifications" that "vary by position".
Trump, when asked by a reporter why he felt that diversity initiatives were to blame, the president replied: “Because I have common sense.”
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