A top ‘DEI’ activist is caught on voicemail allegedly offering minority air traffic controller candidates the chance to cheat in a make-or-break entry exam.
Shelton Snow, a powerful figure in the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), can be heard promising advance access to test answers in a shocking audio clip obtained by DailyMail.com.
‘There are some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of and I am going to send that to you via email,’ says Snow, an air traffic operations supervisor based out of New York.
‘I am about 99.99 percent sure that it is exactly how you need to answer each question.’
The inside info was made available in 2014 to African Americans, females, and other minority candidates – but whites were left out of the loop to ‘minimize competition’.
Exactly how many applicants were able to capitalize on Snow’s brazen offer to secure coveted controller jobs responsible for the safety of millions of fliers remains a mystery.
But one former NBCFAE member, Matthew Douglas, told DailyMail.com: ‘I know several people who cheated and I know several people who are controlling planes as we speak.’
The voicemail comes to light as President Donald Trump vows to purge DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – from US aviation, among other federal agencies, in the wake of the deadly midair collision at Reagan National airport in January that claimed 67 lives.
Government efforts to quietly enforce DEI policies within the Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agencies have come to light amid a recent string of plane collisions and accidents across the country; pictured above is the Delta aircraft that crashed at Toronto airport last month
In audio footage obtained by DailyMail.com, Shelton Snow (pictured), the front line manager of the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), can be heard promising advance access to test answers to minority prospects vying for an air traffic control job in 2014
Snow’s message was recorded just weeks after the FAA announced the biggest hiring shake up in its history during an Obama-era push to ‘widen the aperture’ for women and minorities.
As DailyMail.com exclusively revealed, the federal government agency had controversially replaced its peer-reviewed cognitive exam with a ‘biographical’ quiz asking things like ‘how would you describe your ideal job’ and ‘classmates would remember me as humble or dominant?’
Critics say the quixotic blend of multiple-choice questions was designed to screen out elite, mostly white students from FAA-accredited college courses who excelled in traditional aptitude tests.
Nonetheless, it was proving incredibly tricky for anyone to pass – with a 90 percent failure rate – when Snow decided to intervene.
The then-President of the NBCFAE’s Washington Suburban chapter contacted members in January 2014 with a list of HR ‘buzz words’ to insert into job applications.
‘These buzzwords will flag your resume, thereby giving you the advantage over thousands of resumes that may flood the system,’ he wrote.
At a separate teleconference, applicants were urged to highlight their association with the NBCFAE, the largest employee association within the FAA.
An agenda for the December 2023 powwow read: ‘This is for us to know who our people are in the case that we have one of our own on the board.
Snow also contacted members in January 2014 with a list of HR ‘buzz words’ to insert into job applications
At a separate teleconference applicants were urged to highlight their association with the NBCFAE, the largest employee association within the FAA
‘In the past we’ve always had one and they share our enthusiasm. Can you see the strategy.’
It added: ‘We are only concerned about African-Americans, Women (of every ethnic background), and other minorities.
‘Please ensure that you share this information with no one that is identified outside of that … this is to minimize competition.’
Snow went further in a voicemail, teasing inside info that would prevent NBCFAE-affiliated applicants from flunking the questionnaire.
‘Washington Suburban associate members, brothers, and sisters … I know that each of you are eager, very eager to apply for this job vacancy … and trust that after tonight, you will be able to do so,’ he says.
‘I am asking that you … allow me to provide you with an email that will be extremely crucial in the opening stages of this hiring process.
‘There is some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of and I’m going to send that to you via email. Trust and believe it will be something that you will appreciate to the utmost.
‘Keep in mind, we are trying to maximize your opportunities.’
Ex-NBCFAE member Matthew Douglas (left) who is Native American, turned down Snow’s offer of help and failed the exam twice. The exam proved incredibly tricky for anyone to pass – with a 90 percent failure rate. Air Force vet Ben Avni (right) who also failed, called the methodology ‘flawed beyond recognition’
The FAA controversially replaced its peer-reviewed cognitive exam for aspiring air traffic controllers with a ‘biographical’ quiz to prioritize minority applicants during the Obama era (stock image)
Congress eventually passed Public Law 114-190 in 2016 which barred the FAA from using a biographical assessment as an entry-point exam for new hires
Snow goes on to say during the three-and-a-half-minute clip: ‘I’m gonna send it to each of you and as you progress through the stages, refer to those images so that you will know which icons you should select.
‘Now I have a good mind to send it to one of my HR representatives first and give them the opportunity to sign off on it before you actually click it.
‘But in the sake of time, I’m gonna send it directly to you because I’m about 99.99 percent sure that it’s exactly how you need to answer each question in order to get through the first phase.
‘People have been getting rejection notices … and I want to avoid that.’
When the voicemail was leaked by a whistleblower and featured in a 2015 Fox Business report the FAA came under pressure to investigate.
Snow admitted he had organized a teleconference to ‘walk through’ the test and explain ‘to each person how they should answer the questions.’
The Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General nonetheless cleared him to continue his FAA career, concluding in 2016: ‘The findings in this investigation did not warrant a referral to a federal prosecutor.’
Snow went on to become the NBCFAE’s Northeast Regional Vice President. He was also its top national recruiter for 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016.
According to the NBCFAE website, Snow – who had served as an air traffic operations supervisor, went on to become the NBCFAE’s Northeast Regional Vice President. He was also its top national recruiter for 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016
The US Navy veteran still works for the FAA as well as running a dog breeding business, Snowstorm Bullies, out of his Long Island home.
The 50-year-old dad-of-two lists his hobbies as weightlifting, motorcycles, and monster trucks on the company’s website.
When DailyMail.com reached out to Snow to ask for his version of events, he said: ‘With all due respect, I have no comment. Please do not call this phone again.’
The push to diversify our skies began around the turn of the century when special interest groups started lobbying the FAA to adopt ‘RNO [Race and National Origin] and gender-conscious hiring’.
Controller positions had typically gone to military vets or standout graduates from accredited Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) schools who scored highly on a rigorous cognitive test, the AT-SAT.
But NBCFAE chiefs complained about the ‘disparate treatment and under-representation of African Americans,’ citing a 2009 study which declared air traffic control the ‘least diverse’ branch of the Federal government.
When a 2012 ‘barrier analysis’ suggested the AT-SAT was a problem for minorities, it was scrapped in favor of a ‘biographical assessment’ under a 10-year FAA strategy to add ‘depth and diversity’.
Successful applicants would still go on to take a shorter cognitive test known as the AT-SA but it was weighted as 2.5 times less important when determining whether a candidate would land a job and begin formal air traffic control training.
Just days after taking office in January, President Trump signed an executive order abolishing the government’s DEI agenda and stressed that hiring shouldn’t be on anything ‘other than the brain’
The FAA’s hiring policies came under sharp scrutiny after President Donald Trump controversially blamed the January 29 Ronald Reagan National Airport crash on DEI
The FAA has never explained the counter-intuitive scoring process which rewarded high marks for candidates who ‘need a great deal of time to complete assignments’ or ‘their lowest grade in high school is science’.
But the switch proved catastrophic for CTI graduates who could ace skills-based aviation tests but struggled to get to grips with the quirky biographical replacement.
Congress eventually passed Public Law 114-190 in 2016 which barred the FAA from using a biographical assessment as an entry-point exam for new hires.
But that was too late for CTI graduates like Douglas, 36, who failed it twice and never became an air traffic controller.
Douglas, a native American, joined the NBCFAE after he graduated in 2014 but turned down Snow’s offer of help.
‘I could have done what a bunch of other people did,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘There’s this guy that was handing out the answers and I just stopped talking to him. I was like, I don’t need these answers, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
‘I don’t know if the FAA vetted these people thoroughly and properly but I do know that they were given the opportunity that other kids deserved.’
Ben Arvi, an Air Force veteran with five-plus years of service as an Air Battle Manager, only found out about the cheating several years after failing the test.
‘I see it as analogous to that SAT cheating scandal that went on a few years ago where you had all those rich people paying people to take SATs for their kids,’ said Ben, 41.
‘I think promoting diversity is a good thing. But the methodology they went through was flawed beyond recognition.’
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