Transportation Secretary Accuses Pete Buttigieg of Lowering Air Traffic Controller Standards

8:37 AM PT -- A rep for Pete Buttigieg tells TMZ ... "Instead of doing his job, Sean Duffy continues his obsession with Pete by spewing nonsense that has no basis in fact and the New York Post continues to give that nonsense a boost."

Pete Buttigieg and the Biden Administration are to blame for the lack of competent air traffic controllers ... so says the current Secretary of Transportation.

Sean Duffy threw blame around on the "Pod Force One" podcast ... claiming Buttigieg lowered the requirements to be considered a "well-qualified" air traffic controller while in charge of the federal agency.

Duffy claims the threshold on the Air Traffic Skills Assessment used to be 85% to be considered well-qualified ... but, he claims, under Buttigieg, that number was changed to 80% -- a seemingly small statistical difference that Duffy says has a huge impact.

Secretary Duffy says this led to a substantial academy dropout rate of 30% ... with people flunking out who simply couldn't do the work.

It's worth noting we can't find any public declaration by the DoT to lower the "well-qualified" threshold ... and, Pete Buttigieg's spokesperson told the New York Post, "If [Duffy] had any proof to back up what he said, it seems like they’d provide it.”

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report released earlier this year found the FAA’s ATC academy's graduation rate has fallen in recent years ... from 93% of enlistees graduating in 2010 to just 79% graduating in 2019 and 75% graduating in 2024.

Spots in the academies are limited, the air traffic controller jobs are stressful and they don't pay all that well to start out with ... which could all be reasons for the declining graduation rate as well.

Of course, air traffic controllers were thrust into the spotlight back in January when a helicopter crashed into a passenger jet and killed all 67 people onboard both aircraft. President Donald Trump blamed diversity, equity and inclusion hiring in the aftermath. Buttigieg responded, pointing out personnel changes at the start of the Trump Admin.