Trump reverses Biden diversity ban on saying ‘airmen'
The Trump administration has reversed a ban on the use of the word 'airmen' in pilot safety bulletins as the US president
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a decree overturning an edict that was issued under the former president Joe Biden which outlawed the term 'Notice to Airmen' in the bulletins.
The phrase will now be reintroduced, replacing 'Notice to Air Missions,' which had been in use since December 2021 after the FAA said that it was 'more applicable' and 'inclusive of all aviators and missions'.
The switch was criticised by Republicans at the time as an example of virtue-signalling by the regulator.
The FAA said the re-adoption of the term 'airmen' was 'effective immediately', without offering any rationale for the change. It referred questions regarding the move to the notice itself.
The issuing of safety updates to pilots is regarded as one of the FAA's key roles, with the bulletins relaying essential information on potential hazards ranging from closed runways, military exercises and inoperable navigation aids to parachute jumps and flocks of birds.
The abbreviation for the bulletins, Notam, which is well known in aviation circles, will remain unchanged since it applies to both forms of wording, the FAA said.
It comes after the Biden White House dropped the reference to 'airmen' on the recommendation of the Federal Women's Program as part of a 176-page update of the Notam system. One of the reasons given for the 2021 rewording was that Notams also applied to drones, which don't have airmen – male or female – on board.
However, Ted Cruz, the Republic senator for Texas, had said the change was a response to an FAA obsession with 'semantics,' and that rather than focusing on safety the administration had chosen to alter the name of the bulletins to 'signal its virtue'.
Mr Cruz said the reform had failed to prevent an outage of the Notam system that led to a
Mr Trump last month suggested without evidence that the mid-air
He had earlier issued an executive memorandum ordering that diversity initiatives in aviation roles be undone and directed the regulator to review the competence of staff in critical roles.
The FAA will also update official aeronautical charts to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and Denali, North America's tallest peak, back to Mount McKinley following an order from Mr Trump.
In the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority changed the name of its own Notam system from 'Notice to Airmen' to 'Notice to Aviation' in 2021. Some British pilots complained in an online chatroom for aviators that the move had been enforced by 'PC mandarins'.
The CAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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