First time. When the equipment landed in libya, half went one way and half went the other way. The half that went the other way is the half that ended up in syria. Im adam shapiro. Im cath ridge herridge. And thats next on fox files. Hello, im adam shapiro, air Traffic Controllers, those eyes in the towers are key to plane travel. But new key hiring practices by the federal Aviation Administration have called into question if the best, most qualified people will be working in the taufrs. Moreover, their accusations of cheating to get the controller jobs. Will you be safe aboard an airplane . Or is there trouble in americas skies . Theyve been called the guardians of the skies. Good morning, america 11. Americas air Traffic Controllers manage the safe takeoff and landing, more than 87,000 flights a day. Its been called one of the most demanding and stressful jobs in the u. S. United 93, go ahead. Never was the importance of what controllers do more apparent than on september 11th, 2001. Another one just hit the buildings. Controllers scrambled to determine which of the thousands of planes on their radar screens had become guided missiles. They also tackled the tremendous logistics of landing 4,000 planes within a few hours. Its a war. Today the federal Aviation Administration or faa, the Government Agency responsible for air Traffic Control faces a new crisis. Probably the next one to three years were going to see some real problems. Doug williams is Program Director of the aviation collegiate Training Initiative or cti program. At the Community College of baltimore county, maryland. Its one of 36 cti schools, established by the faa, across the u. S. Offering two and fouryear degrees in air Traffic Control. Cti Program Brings in people that are genuinely interested in air Traffic Control. It gives them the skills that are required to be an air Traffic Controller. The faa faces an acute shortage of qualified air Traffic Controllers. Controllers are required to retire at age 56. The faa estimates it needs to hire 1,000 controllers a year for the next ten years to keep air traffic moving safely. The faa created the cti program in the early 90s, anticipating the retirement of air Traffic Controllers. They saw the shortage that was coming. But williams said recent faa hiring changes are making the problem worse. Fox business brought together six recent cti graduates, all of whom had one dream to serve the nation in a control tower. Ryan becker grew up around air Traffic Controllers. Your dad is an air Traffic Controller. He was, he retired. Ben albany served five years in the United States air force. I was an air battle manager, he directed fighter intercepts from the nato awacs. I love this industry. I love airplanes. Miranda riley found her lifes passion early. I think its fascinating, this industry is a unique one. Matthew douglas visited a control tower in his native seattle, washington. He was hooked instantly. I like maps, i like spatial information. Its a way to contribute to the community. And make sure that everyone gets home safely. I quit a school at google maps to go to school in anchorage alaska, i made the 2500mile drive by myself and my dog. My father grandfather pilots to varying degrees. Lucas johnson grew up around aviation. And arianna bocce found her calling in college. I started my sophomore year in aviation. Because it fit my personality. To pursue a career as air Traffic Controllers, all six entered cti programs. It was the established way to get into air Traffic Control. You go to faa. Gov and it said attend a cti school, so thats what i did. After graduating, the next hurdle to being hired by the faa was the air traffic selection and training exam, or atsat. Actual control scenarios, games that test your ability to multitask. All skills that are essential to this job. So is it your understanding that the atsat was the test . Yes. The test. All achieved the wellqualified status on this crucial test in late 2013, they were confident they would be hired by the faa to become certified professional controllers or cpcs. It made sense the faa always gave hiring preference to cti grads with the highest scores on the atsat. I had two degrees, i finished my air Traffic Control program with a 4. 0 and i interned with the faa. I think i had a decent chance, absolutely. You have this really high score on the test. Youre a veteran, which theyre required to seek people like you out. What were you thinking, say in november of 2013 as the 2014 job bids were about to be announced . I was excited to get the ball rolling. But out of nowhere, on december 30th, 2013, the faa suddenly informed cti schools and then thousands of their graduates, it was completely changing the hiring process. We learned about it in a letter that we received on december 30th, 2013. From the faa explaining that they were no longer going to give hiring preference to cti graduates. After years of study, and for many, thousands of dollars in student loan debt, cti graduates had to start all over. Everything they had worked for was deemed irrelevant. Not only was preferential consideration for their degrees discarded even the atsat test, the crucial Aptitude Test would no longer be a primary requirement. Instead the faa introduced a biographical questionnaire and in february of 2014 thousands took this new test. Let me read some of the questions from that new test. What has been the major cause of your failures . A question that everyone seems to love is question number 21. In which they ask the number of different High School Sports i participated in was and these are multiple choice questions. What did you think . How does this relate to the job . How does this determine whats going to make a successful candidate . And then what happened . I got an email saying i was not qualified. Anyone else get that email . Sure did. All of us. These six and thousands of other wellqualified cti graduates were deemed ineligible. How did you feel, lucas . Just kind of crushed. Lost, you know what am i supposed to do . It breaks your heart to work so hard for something. And for someone to say that youre not legible because of a personality exam. I dont understand how people of this caliber, this group, were not able to proceed. Coming up theres valuable pieces of information that ive take an screen shot of and im going to send it to you via email. Did someone have the answers to the test . Thats sickening, thats cheating. At ally bank no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping. In february 2014, thousands of graduates of air Traffic Control schools learned their dreams had been crushed. Their degrees were now irrelevant. Scores on the atsat test ignored. Worse, the grads had been deemed ineligible to become controllers. Why . A murky and strange biographical personality test. Newly implemented by the faa. To select candidates. Theres no information for us to understand how we can improve or what we can focus on to make ourselves better candidates. Anybody ever say what made you eligible or not eligible . Weve asked that question also and members of congress have asked the faa. The faa made some very dramatic changes to the way theyre hiring our air Traffic Controllers. Nobody understands what this biographical questionnaire is evaluating. Ill have michael wartiff from the faa reach out directly to you. This is really troubling. The faa says this test has been proven to be a valid instrument for assessing experience work habits, education, dimensions related to success on the job. Yet just months later the faa published a different conflicting report titled using biodata to select air Traffic Controllers. It says we conclude the evidence for using these biodata items for controller selection is weak. It makes no sense. Wheres the logic behind it if its weak, why would you use it . By all accounts whats driving the changes in hiring of air Traffic Controllers is a program to promote diversity in the nations control towers. Diversity is a noble goal. Im not going to deny that. It generate a better atmosphere when you have people from different back grounds and i completely agree with it. Back in 2013. The faa office of civil rights published a massive Barrier Analysis on the impediments or barriers for minorities. It states the first steps of the original hiring process are the most likely places for systematic adverse impacts. Because these steps are responsible for the vast majority of fails. It also says the cti program is much less diverse than offthestreet hires. The Barrier Analysis concluded that youre not diverse. We had completed a diversity study. Which showed that we were showing significant progress in helping the diversity within the faa air Traffic Controller ranks. Lucas, are you africanamerican . Yeah. They threw you away. He said theyve got enough africanamericans or that they dont really know what they want. Matthew, youre native american, right . Correct. Miranda . Female. What do you think . I think that they had a goal and they went about it the wrong way. A former air Traffic Controller himself, mike pearson now works as an aviation lawyer. Its my belief that the faa is engaged in a pattern of discrimination and now theyre covering it up. Pearson and others believe that diversity advocates strongarmed the faa into changing its hiring practices. You had social engineering in my belief, my opinion, going on. It was driven by two arms of the faa. Two different organizations, one was the Human Resources group. And i believe there was another group engaging in what i believe is discrimination against qualified candidates. What is that organization . The nbcfa. The National Black coalition of federal aviation employees. The coalition is an Umbrella Group for various minorities. Anybody considered a minority can join. The nbcfae had formed a team to try to change the hiring process, theyre certainly allowed to advocate for their group. Thats legal. But one thing theyre not allowed to do is advocate for a group at the exclusion of another group. Pearson suspects the faa abandoned the wellestablished cti Training Program and threw away qualified and welltrained graduates, to bring in offthestreet hires without aviation degrees. And that way, achieve greater diversity. Social engineering. At the risk of compromising safety. But theres more. The advocacy on the part of mbcfae appears to go far beyond a change in hiring practices. Fox business obtained a troubling recording made by an faa employee. Who is also an mbcfae executive. I would like to play something for you. Associate members, brothers and sisters, listen. I know that each of you are eager, very eager to apply for this job vacancy announcement. And trust after tonight you will be able to do so. It was sent as an audio text to certain applicants who were already members of the organization. Allow me to go to work and come home, provide you with an email that will be extremely crucial in the opening stages of this hiring process. Theres some valuable pieces of information that i have taken a screenshot of and i am going to send that to you via email. Im about 99. 99 sure that its exactly how you need to answer each question. In order to get through the first phase. Utterly disgusting. Handing out the answers. Thats absolutely sickening. Thats cheating of the most unacceptable highest level that ive ever seen right there. Pure and simple cheating. Coming up its my belief that the faa is hiding the truth. There are people from the mbcfae who say you gave them the answers on the test. Who do i speak to about them . No comment. In 2014, an audio text message was sent to certain members of the National Black coalition of federal aviation employees. Im going to send it directly to you, because its exactly how you need to answer each question. In order to get through the first phase. The audio text suggests cheating took place on the Entrance Exam to become an faa air Traffic Controller. Are you shocked . No. Why not . Because i received that voice mail. Why do you want to talk about it . I joined the mbcfae and when i saw what was going on i knew that i had to stand on the right side of the fence. Though miranda did receive the audio text and the subsequent email with screenshots, she says she did not cheat on the biographical questionnaire. I believe the flying public has a right to know this is going on. I believe that people engaged in this behavior need to be held accountable. We contacted shelton snow, the faa employee who sent the text. And invited him to be interviewed. But he refused. So we tracked him down in washington, d. C. How are you, mr. Snow . Its a simple question, we want to ask you why you gave the answers to those students of the air Traffic Controllers. We have a number of students of the mbfae who said you gave them answers for the biographical questionnaire. He continued to avoid answering our questions. Who do i speak to about this . No comment. Is there they say you gave them the answers. Im just trying to find out if thats true or not. No comment. We also contacted the president of the nbcfae and shes not returned our calls. The they said the cti Program Failed to produce Better Qualified candidates than people right off the street. But fox business obtained an unpublished faa draft document from october 2014 which directly contradicts this. And heres the actual quote. Overall, larger proportions of vra, thats the vets and cti hires achieved certified professional controller status than did general public hires. Theyre saying that the cti Program Benefits the taxpayers, benefits the flying public. Why wont the faa make this public . Its my belief that the faa is engaged in a continual game of hiding the truth. Hiding information. From the public on this. Not only public, theres numerous congressmen involved in this. So we went to capitol hill. There we spoke with illinois congressman randy haltgrab. Theres a debate within the faa, that the cti programs which they created were being pushed asigh side over hiring people off the street and what the faa is saying is people off street are just as qualified as people who have gone through cti. I fundamentally disagree with that you might get lucky and find a few people who are qualified. But what ive seen is youve got passionate people willing to commit them themselves to find these jobs. Air Traffic Controllers hiring act of 2015. The biggest objective is to make sure our air travel is the safest in the world and to make sure weve got the most qualified people serving as air Traffic Controllers. We played the audio text for him. Its exactly how you need to answer each question. It sounds like cheating. It sounds like someone inside getting information out to people. Very concerning. Since the report first aired, washington has taken notice, the house aviation subcommittee on Clinton Administration as well as the air Traffic Controllers association have demanded answers from the faa. Aviation subcommittee chairman commented on the faa scandal. The chairman of the committee and i sent a letter to the inspector general. We got a response that because of thar our request, they will be investigating this. Though the faa has refused to speak with us we were able to reach joseph teixeira, Vice President of safety and Technical Training about the testing and cheating scandals, he said and this is a quote its not my area of expertise. Its not my problem. Its a strange response. After all, the faa website describes teixeiras job as one in which he leads the agencys Technical Training and certification of air Traffic Controllers and technicians. The fact that youve got a senior official who basically is saying its not my area, its not my responsibility what does it mat centre in so many words what does it matter, what does cheating matter . America gets that thats not right and we have a responsibility on the Transportation Committee and the aviation subcommittee to get to the bottom of it. Thats what were going to try to do. Less than two months since this report first aired, teixeira abruptly resigned from the faa. Furthermore on august 21st, michael querta, the faa administrator sent a letter to congressman lobiando stating he tasked two offices within the faa to conduct thorough investigations into the allegations contained in this report. The letter states the faa found no evidence that the allegations in the press reports are true. It also claims that the individual making the allegations declined repeated attempts to be interviewed. Miranda rileys lawyer, mike pearson, responded to that in a letter he sent congress. Saying there is absolutely no truth to the statement that my client was not willing to provide relevant testimony to the faa. For the tci grads left stranded, attorney mike pearson is convinced theres a discrimination com