Overview

Delta Air Lines DEI Pilots, also known as Endeavor Air DEI Controversy, refers to ongoing discussions about the airline involved in the February 2025 Toronto plane crash as some netizens criticized the company on social media, perceiving it as being too focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Many anti-woke and conservative pages on X / Twitter started to share videos of Endeavor Air, a subsidiary company of Delta Airlines operating the plane that crashed in Canada, showing all-female "unmanned" flights, insinuating the pilots of the aircraft that crashed in Toronto were women and part of Delta's DEI staff, leading to accusations correlating the cause of the incident for DEI initiatives from the airline, which others perceived as sexist. Even though Delta and Endeavor Air haven't released full details about the Flight 4819 crew, netizens doxxed the staff's personal information, especially a female first officer who had flown for Endeavor since January 2024 that the company states "exceeded the mandatory minimum standards set by the federal government."

Background

On February 17th, 2025, a Delta Air Lines jet arriving from Minneapolis flipped upside down after landing at Toronto Pearson Airport in heavy snow weather. According to BBC,^[1] All 80 people on board survived, with "21 injured initially transported to local hospitals – with 19 later released." What caused the airline crash remains under investigation by Canadian Transportation Safety, but the incident sparked some discussions online about the runway conditions and possible pilot error as contributing factors.

On February 19th, 2025, amid discussions about the cause of the crash, the X^[2] page @EndWokeness shared a TikTok video from Endeavor Air, a Delta Air Lines subsidiary that operated the plane in the Toronto crash, writing "a small airline obsessed with all-female 'unmanned' flights." The video (seen below) amassed over 27 million views and 160,000 likes in two days.

Online Reactions

Over the following days, the incident sparked discussion about the role of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the hiring practices of Delta and Endeavor Air.

For instance, on February 18th, 2025, X^[5] user @rotatingconcept posted a series of screenshots from Endeavor Air's website, writing, "Why am I not surprised that Endeavor, the company operating Delta Flight 4819, has a website packed to the gills with DEI signaling." The tweet (seen below) amassed roughly 13,000 views and 200 likes in three days.

Discussions about Delta's purported "DEI hire" also were posted on YouTube, as user Clyde Do Something^[6] posted a video on February 19th, titled "Is DEI Behind the Toronto Delta Plane Crash?" which amassed more than 23,000 views and 3,400 likes in two days (seen below).

On February 20th, 2025, X^[3] user @truckdriverpleb shared a screenshot of an article by The Express Tribune,^[4] which used unverified sources about one of the alleged Delta pilots who was involved in the accident in Toronto, writing, "The pilot who landed the plane upside down at the Toronto Pearson Airport is a 26-year-old female who just got certified as an Airline transport pilot last month," adding, "DEI strikes again!" The tweet (seen below) received more than 3 million views and 38,000 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References