Im going send it directly to you because its exactly how you need to answer each question. I am shocked. Sounds like cheating. Sickening. Very unfair and unjust. Gerri are americas skies safe to fly . Social engineering at the risk of compromising safety. Gerri and welcome to this special edition of the willis report. Trouble in the skies. Tonight were investigating the faas disturbing new hiring policies. Its going to be the busiest summer ever for air travel in this country. Over 220 million americans will take to the crowded skies. There are more than 5,000 planes in the air at any given moment. In fact, including military, commercial private planes, nearly 90,000 flights crisscross the United States every single day, and that is a lot of planes and its the job of air Traffic Controllers to safely manage those flights. You think the federal government and the faa would want the best most qualified people in the control towers . But a six month long fox business special investigation reveals thats not the case. Adam shapiro brings us this exclusive report. Reporter each day, almost two million americans take to the skies. And all depend on aviation professionals to get home safely. Hello. Im adam shapiro. Air Traffic Controllers, eyes in the towers are key to this. New hiring practices by the federal Aviation Administration have called into question if the best most qualified people will be working in the towers . Moreover, there are 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 american. Reporter americas air Traffic Controllers manage the safe takeoff and landing of 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. Reporter never was the importance of what controllers do more apparent than on september 11th, 2001. Bomb aboard. Severe bleeding, there is a slashed throat. Another one hit the building. Wow. Reporter controllers scrambled to determine which of the thousands of planes had become guided missiles. They also tackled a tremendous logistics of landing 4,000 planes within a few hours. A new type of war. Reporter 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 real problems. Reporter Doug Williams is Program Director of the aviation collegiate Training Initiative at Community College of Baltimore County maryland. 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 genuinely interested in air Traffic Control. Gives them the skills that are required to be an air Traffic Controller. Reporter the faa faces acute shortage of air Traffic Controllers required to retire at age 56. The faa estimates it needs to hire 1,000 controllers for the next ten years to keep traffic moving safely. They created the cti program in the early 90s anticipating the retirement of the air Traffic Controllers. They saw the shortage coming. Uhhuh. Reporter williams says recent faa hiring changes are make the problem worse. Fox business brought together six recent cti graduates who had one dream. To serve the nation in a control tower. Ryan grew up around air Traffic Controllers. Your dad is an air Traffic Controler. He was he retired. Reporter ben served five years in the u. S. Air force. I directed fighter intercepts from the nato awacs. I love this industry i love airplanes. Reporter miranda found her lifes passion early. I think its fascinating this industry is a unique one. Reporter Matthew Douglas visited a control tower in his native seattle, washington he was hooked instantly. I like mapped spatial information, its a way to contribute to the community and make sure everyone gets home safely. I quit a job at google maps to go to school in anchorage alaska. I made the drive with myself and my dog. My dad and uncles and grandfather are pilots to varying degrees. Reporter Lucas Johnson grew up around aviation. Travel tours ever since i was little. Reporter and arianna found her calling in college. I started my sophomore year in aviation because it fit my personality. Reporter to pursue career as air Traffic Controllers all six entered cti programs. The established way to get into air Traffic Control. You go to faa. Gov and said attend a cti school. Thats what di. Reporter after graduating the next hurtle to being hired by the faa is the air traffic selection and training exam or atsat. Administered by the faa. Actual control scenarios, games that enhance your ability to multitask all skills that are essential to the job. Reporter is it your understanding that the atsat is the test . The test. Reporter as i understand it, the atsat is a 0100 score. 85100 is well qualified. Reporter tell me what the atsat score was . 94. 100. 93. 6. 85. 100. 86. Reporter all achieved the wellqualified status on the crucial test. They were confident they would be hired by the faa to become certified professional controllers or cpcs. It made sense, the faa gave hiring preference to cti grads with the highest scores on the atsat. Two degrees finished air Traffic Control program with the 4. 0 and interned for the faa i thought i had a decent chance. Reporter ben you had the highest score on the test. Youre a veteran theyre required to seek people like you out, what were you thinking in november 2013 as the 2014 job bids were about to be announced . I was excited to get the ball rolling. Reporter but out of nowhere on december 30th, 2013, the faa suddenly informed cti schools and thousands of graduates it was completely changing the hiring process. We learned about it in a letter that we received on december 30th, 2013 explaining they were no longer going to give hiring preference to cti graduates. Reporter after years of study and 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 degrees discarded the test the crucial Aptitude Test would no longer be a primary requirement. Instead the faa introduced a biographical questionnaire or bq, and in february 2014, thousands took this new test. Let me read some of the questions from the test. What has been the major cause of your failures . A question that everyone seems to love is question number 21 which they ask the number of different High School Sports i participated in was and these are multiple choice questions. What did you think when you saw this biographical assessment is what it was called in 2014 . How does this relate to the job . How does this determine whats going to make a successful candidate. I thought it was easy, sure, i can answer these. And then what happened . I got an email saying i was not qualified. Reporter anyone else get, thats mail . All of us. Reporter these six and thousands of other wellqualified cti graduates were deemed ineligible. How did you feel lucas . Crushed, lost. What am i supposed to do . Breaks your heart to work so hard for something and someone to say youre not eligible because of a personality. I dont understand how people in this group were not able to proceed. There is some valuable pieces of information that i have taken a screen shot of and going to send that via email. Reporter did someone have the answers to the test . Absolutely sickening, that is cheating. Very unjust and utterly disgusting. Gerri adam, amazing reporting. Congratulations on. That i want to know about the cheating . Did someone have the answers to the test in the answer is yes. Youre going to meet the person who sent the text voice mail. Youve got to see how the students react when they hear it for the first time. Gerri adam stay put. Well need you more here. Up next as we continue our special investigation into the faas corrupt new hiring policies. Why did the agency suddenly throw out test scores of thousands of potential new air Traffic Controllers . And well hear more from the military vet who flew planes into battle for a living and was told he didnt have the right stuff back here at home. Stay with us. You can call me shallow. But, i have a wandering eye. I mean, come on. National gives me the control to choose any car in the aisle i want. I could choose you. Or i could choose her if i like her more. And i do. Oh, the silent treatment. Real mature. So you wanna get out of here . Go national. Go like a pro. Gerri were back with our special investigation into the faas hiring practices. Practices that could endanger the millions of air travelers in this country. Before the break adam shapiro reported how the faa suddenly changed its hiring process telling qualified candidates they had to start over and pass a new test. Whats worse people who dedicated their lives to being air Traffic Controllers were shut out by a dubious test which others may have cheated. Heres more of our investigation trouble in the skies. In february 2014, thousands of graduates of air Traffic Control schools learned their dreams had been crushed. The primary path to a job in americas towers a path established years before by the faa was suddenly abandoned. Their degrees were now irrelevant, scores on the atsat test ignored. Worse the graduates had been deemed ineligible to be controllers. Why . A murky and strange Personality Test newly implemented by the faa to select candidates. Being a military aviator was my life long goal and achieved that go. Air Traffic Control was a very very solid fallback plan. The g. I. Bill got into a Graduation Program in my hometown. Reporter they deemed you ineligible. There is no information for us to understand how we can improve or what we can focus on to make ourselves a better candidate for the faa. I contacted senator and representatives and no one could get an answer. Reporter anybody say what made you eligible or ineligible . We asked ourselves and Congress Asked the faa. The faa made changes to the way theyre hiring air Traffic Controllers. Nobody understands what the biographical questionnaire is evaluating or why theyre not making it through. Ill have michael reach out directly to you. This to me is really troubling. Reporter let me read what the faa says. This test has been proven to be a valid instrument for experiencing work habits education and dimensions related to success on the job. And yet months later, the faa published a different conflicting report titled using biodata to select air Traffic Controllers. It says based on analysis of the relationship between certain biodata items and training success we conclude that the evidence for using these biodata items for controller selection is weak. Makes no sense. Where is the logic behind it . If its weak why would you use it . Based hiring force on Biographical Data, and now saying its weak . Reporter by all accounts whats driving the changes and hiring of air Traffic Controllers is a program to promote diversity in the towers. Diversity is a noble goal. Im not going to deny that. It generates a better atmosphere when you have people from different backgrounds. I completely agree with it. Reporter back in 2013, the faa office of civil rights based analysis on impediments and barriers for minorities it. State the first steps are the most likely process for systematic adverse impact because the steps are responsible for the vast majority of fails. It also says the cti program such less diverse than off the street hires. The Barrier Analysis concluded you are not diverse. We completed a diversity study which showed that we were showing significant progress in helping the diversity within the faa air Traffic Controller ranks. Reporter lucas are you africanamerican . Yeah. Reporter they threw you away . Either they have enough africanamerican or dont you what they want. Reporter you are africanamerican, right . Correct. Moranda you are a female. They had a goal they went about it the wrong way. Reporter a former air Traffic Controller himself, mike works as an aviation lawyer. Its my belief the faa is engaged in a pattern of discrimination and covering it up. Reporter they believe advocates strong armed the faa into changing 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 a Human Resources group and i believe another group engaging in what i believe is discrimination against qualified candidates. Reporter what is that organization . The nbcfae. The National Black coalition of federal aviation employees. Anybody can join. The nbcfae formed a team to change the hiring process. Theyre allowed to advocate for their group thats legal. The one thing theyre not allowed to do is advocate for a group at the exclusion of another group. Reporter he suspects the faa abandoned the wellestablished cti Training Program and threw away qualified and welltrained graduates to bring in off the street hires without aviation degrees and achieve greater diversity. Social engineering at the risk of compromising safety. But theres more. The advocacy on the part of nbcfae appears to go far beyond a change in hiring practices. Fox business obtained a troubling recording made by an faa employee, whos also an nbcfae executive. Id like to play something for you. Associate members brothers and sisters listen. I know that each you are eager very eager to apply for this job announcement, and trust after tonight, you will be able to do so. Reporter it was sent as an audio text to certain applicants who were already members of the organization. Allow me to go work and come home provide you with an email that will be extremely crucial in the opening stages of this hiring process. There are some valuable pieces of information that i have taken a screen shot of and im going to send it 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. The answers. That is sickening. That is cheating at a most unacceptable highest level ive seen right there. Pure and simple cheating. Its my belief that the faa is hiding the truth. Sounds like cheating, sounding like someone inside giving information out to people. People from the nbcfae that say you gave them the answers to the test. Who do i speak to . No comment. Gerri adam, the last clip, is that the man who sent the audio text message . That is the man in the recording youre going to meet him in a few minutes and hear what he has to say or not say about all of this. There is even more. We havent begun to tap whats in the recording. Youre going to hear a lot more. Gerri all right, did the faa know about the cheating and what do they do about it . And more on the man at the center of the cheating scandal. Its a simple question just want to ask you why you gave the answers to the students. We have people from the nbcfae that said you gave answers to the biographical questions. You total your brand new car. Nobodys hurt,but there will still be pain. It comes when your Insurance Company says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do, drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had a Liberty Mutual new car replacement, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. New car replacement is just one of the features that come standard with a base Liberty Mutual policy. And for drivers with accident forgivness,rates wont go up due to your first accident. Learn more by calling switch to Liberty Mutual and you can save up to 423. For a free quote today,call Liberty Mutual insurance at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Gerri welcome back to special edition of the wittic report, we investigate the corrupt practices hiring practices of the faa. And how they changed their test, adam shapiro is with us. You reached out to faa why do they say they changedtivity. Important to note they refused to come on camera. They said, to increase objectty and select those applicants with highest probability of success in faas air Traffic Controller training process there are questions about whether that is valid. Gerri what do they say about cheating. I asked them, no individuals have made credible allegations to the faa about this issue. Where are the people who passed this bygraphical test are they in air Traffic Control towers . Yes some are now in the centers and towers. We reached out to the nbcfae starting in january they refused to talk to us, they said down talk to fo