Congressmen Want Controller Cheating Charges Investigated
A bipartisan group of U.S. representatives is asking FAA Administrator Michael Huerta for full disclosure relating to the alleged cheating by some candidates for air traffic controller positions. As AVweb reported last week, Fox Business News says it’s in possession of a voicemail from a senior FAA official offering select controller candidates the answers to a “biographical questionnaire” (BQ) that now forms the initial screening test for new controllers.
A bipartisan group of U.S. representatives is asking FAA Administrator Michael Huerta for full disclosure relating to the alleged cheating by some candidates for air traffic controller positions. As AVweb reported last week, Fox Business News says it's in possession of a voicemail from a senior FAA official offering select controller candidates the answers to a "biographical questionnaire" (BQ) that now forms the initial screening test for new controllers. "We request that the FAA fully investigate these claims of wrongdoing by the FAA employee, including the extent to which others were aware of the wrongdoing and provide the corrective actions the FAA plans to take in response," wrote Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who is chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee. He gave a deadline of May 26. The FAA did not respond to an email request asking for comment on the letter.
LoBiondo also says the group wants to be kept up to date on what Huerta is doing to get the information. Last year the FAA changed the way it screens ATC candidates by eliminating the preference for graduates of collegiate training institute (CTI) programs. It made the CTI grads take the BQ along with so-called "off-the-street" candidates and many of them did not advance to the next stage. The Fox story identified a senior FAA employee who is also an official of the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE) as the person who supplied an unknown number of NBCFAE members who were applying for ATC jobs with answers to the BQ.