Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy charged on the latest episode of “Pod Force One” that his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg, lowered the requirements to be considered a “well-qualified” air traffic control candidate, leading to spiking dropout rates at the Federal Aviation Administration Academy in Oklahoma City.
Officially, candidates who score above 85% on the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA) exam are considered “well-qualified” — or “best-qualified” with a score of 90% or higher — and prime choices to be FAA-certified controllers.
However, under Buttigieg, Duffy told The Post’s Miranda Devine, “they lowered the standard from 85% to 80% to be best qualified … to get these young people into the academy.
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“Well, what happened was, they had a substantial washout rate, 30%-plus,” Duffy went on, “because they couldn’t do the work.”
“And then it took so long, if they go — if, Miranda, you take the test, you pass it, you got an 82%, it might take you two years to get your seat in the academy,” the secretary continued. “Well, if you’re 22 years old, you’re gonna go find a different job. You’re not gonna stick around.”
A spokesperson for Buttigieg told The Post on Tuesday when asked for comment on Duffy’s claims: “If he had any proof to back up what he said, it seems like they’d provide it.”
Buttigieg himself has also vehemently denied lowering the standards to become a certified air traffic controller.
“To be abundantly clear: we did not change the rigorous standard for becoming a certified air traffic controller,” Buttigieg wrote on X on Feb. 2. “Those claiming otherwise are mistaken or lying. We did increase funding & training, and grew the ATC workforce after years of declining numbers, including under Trump.”
Reps for the FAA and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Duffy acknowledged to Devine that while the ATSA exam is “the best indicator” known for determining who may be up for the job of directing the nation’s air traffic, “they haven’t really figured out the best test to do this.”
“It’s a tough job,” the DOT chief said. “And by the way, it’s really hard to figure out who’s going to be good at it. You could get a baker and a candlestick maker that are great at it, and someone else with a math degree that just doesn’t figure it out.”
Earlier this year, Duffy moved to aggressively ramp up recruitment of air traffic controllers to address workforce shortages that have dogged the agency for nearly three decades.
The issue made national headlines after 67 people were killed Jan. 29 in a midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and a regional jet over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Full episode
“We’re getting kids, young people, into the academy much faster,” Duffy said. “So in two months after you take the entrance exam, we’re getting you into the academy. And what we’re doing is, if you’re at 98% on that test [or] 94 [%], you are going to take the top slots as slots become available. So we’re getting the best scores in the academy first. And what we’ve done with that is we’ve lowered the washout rate, which means we can get more young people into towers.”
The secretary added that academy graduates could be fully certified in as little as one year “if they’re in a not-so-busy airspace,” and stressed that “it’s going to take us time to see the fruits of our hard labor right now, but we’re well on our way to filling the gaps in air traffic control.”
The FAA has said that its goal is to hire 8,900 new air traffic controllers by the end of 2028.
