FAA AND TSA
WHISTLEBLOWER SUPPRESSION/STONEWALLING
Federal
Employees
The Whistleblower
Protection Enhancement Act of 2009 is designed to provide enhanced
protections for federal workers who observe wrong-doing in the
workplace. As we have observed the past decade under the Bush regime, many
whistleblowers suffered harsh recriminations for speaking out when they believed
that they had laws to protect them, but more importantly, institutions of
government and politicians to support and protect them, while appropriately
addressing their legitimate concerns. In almost all cases, they had
neither.
There are many examples of such federal
employees in the aviation industry as fired Federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean, TSA
Red Team Leader Bogdan
Dzakovic, FAA Inspectors Gabe
Bruno, Chris
Monteleon, and Rich
Wyeroski, Air Traffic Controllers Anne
Whiteman and Ray
Adams, and many others. In every one of these instances, not only did
federal law protections disintegrate, but politicians and law enforcement who
could have interceded in their behalf turned a blind eye to obvious travesties
of justice. This continues today as these honest employees struggle to bring
their cases to the court of public
opinion for judgment.
The House version of the above legislation
allows for jury trials/discovery phase, which must be included in the final
version of the bill that President Obama signs, who also campaigned on a promise
of enhance whistleblower protection. Many citizens already recognize the broken
campaign promises of the current administration. If 'We the People' are to
right this sinking ship, we must demand this legally-protective
enhancement signed into law.
Airline
Employees
For airline aircrew members who are not
federal employees, but are nonetheless the 'front-line employees' in the
field who can readily identify safety and security frailties
first-hand, the complexities and resultant pressures in doing so multiply
exponentially. An extreme case was exemplified for airline employees during the
post-9/11 bankruptcies where financial yield was grossly diminished
with sky-high fuel prices and reduced passenger loads. Similar pressures are
being brought to bear in a weak economy with the mega-merging of trunk
carriers.
Please recall that the Airline
Transportation Stabilization Act enabled the disbursement of a "whopping"
$10-billion in loan guarantee relief to be divided amongst ALL
financially-distressed air carriers under extremely stringent loan conditions
requiring massive employee pay/pension and work rule concessions. Of the
$10-billion, only $1.5-billion total in loans were let, of which United
Airlines, a 9/11 victim-airline and the largest airline in the world at the
time, received $0. In light of the unaudited billions given to banks last year,
somehow something seems
peculiar here, doesn't it?
Regardless of passenger yield, jet fuel
prices, airlines in bankruptcy or merger, or any other external financial,
legal, or political pressures impacting an airline bottom line, do these
pressures relieve aircrew members from their safety and security
reporting responsibilities in the performance of their assigned duties? Of
course they don't! Professional aircrew members must never compromise safety
and/or security for any reason. Airline passengers depend on aircrew
to do what is SAFE. This is what they pay for with ticket
purchases.
After the Colgan Air 3407 disaster in
Buffalo, New York last year, many promises were made by Congress and the FAA to
the families of the next-of-kin, but issues such as increased training
requirements and crew fatigue issues for cockpit crew members at lower-cost
carriers. The DOT intends to issue a
report in a few weeks, which hopefully will fulfill promises made to the
next-of-kin, but this remains to be seen. Similar enhanced security promises
were made immediately following 9/11 and were never implemented, but are still
needed, as was demonstrated in the Northwest 253 near-disaster in Detroit on
Christmas day last year. Why not? Money.
After Colgan Air 3407, much media hoopla
was made over the round-table discussions held by the FAA, airline management,
and the union leadership, with promises made of a 'new day' at the FAA, who also
admitted that they had problems at the time, but were correcting them. This
still remains to be seen, but this doesn't appear to be the case thus far one
year into the 'new day'.
Captain Dan
Hanley, national public spokesperson for the Whistleblowing Airline
Employees Association, tragically
concluded his 35-year pilot career and serves as an example of massive
failures by the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration,
and the Transportation Security Administration to adequately resolve safety and
security issues in a timely and expeditious manner. The advent of this
association blossomed directly from his harsh treatment as both an FAA and TSA
whistleblower, neither of which has been appropriately addressed to date by
either the Office of Inspector General of the Departments of Transportation and
Homeland Security...eight years later. Why not? Do we have to wait for the
20/20 hindsight of these safety and security agencies to focus with the next
air disaster(s) for corrections to be made?
Ask a Chris Monteleon or a Gabe Bruno or a
Bob MacLean. Ask Captain Dan
Hanley, as some of the 2003 issues that he federally reported could have
possibly averted Colgan Air 3407 or would have alerted the cockpit crew of
Northwest 235 that something was amiss in the cabin during a critical phase of
flight. Unfortunately, the airline safety and security equation is driven by
the death statistics...but mainly the bottom-line as a commercial
enterprise.
In 2003, after attempting to keep safety
and security lapses out of the public eye and within the company during the
United Airlines post-9/11 bankruptcy, United Airlines B-777 Captain
Hanley submitted internal company federal reports that were stonewalled.
Realizing this, he intended to send a certified letter (below) to United
Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton, but was warned by ALPA management and legal
department, "Go ahead and send that letter if you never want to fly another
United airplane again in your life".
Frustrated and perplexed, while suspecting
that bankruptcy pressures precluded union support and legal representation, Captain
Hanley elected to draw the FAA Principle Operation Inspector into the
equation by filing federally-mandated reports to 'normalize' the situation so
that his legitimate safety and security concerns would be appropriately
addressed.
As a result, his 35-year career was terminated by what he alleges
was a 'hostile work environment company psychiatric evaluation resulting in the
loss of his medical certification required to fly commercial jet aircraft. For
complete details, please click here. Was this right? Could it happen to
you now? Of course it could!Just ask National Security Administration whistleblower Russell
Tice or Dr. Janet
Parker or Continental First Officer Newton Dickson!
Whistleblowing Airline
Employees AssociationThe Whistleblowing Airline Employees
Association serves to augment the Departments of Transportation
and Transportation Security Administration in making our aerospace system 'the
safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world'. Our 'special interest'
are the millions who travel by commercial air, and those dedicated safety
professionals who serve them daily...aircrew members, FAA personnel, and federal
air marshals.
It should be noted that this independent
grassroots organization is not hampered by pressures exerted by Big Banks/Wall
Street, K-Street, Big Oil, the Air Transport Association, the Regional Airline
Association, airline management, or unions, nor do our
actions assure our success during the next congressional election
cycle.
If any employee EVER experiences
political, communication and/or administrative challenges, regarding safety
and security issues that are not being adequately addressed by appropriate
authority, please visit our website and, if you cannot find the information you
need there, kindly employ the 'Contact Us'
page on the site. If we cannot provide you with an answer, we will direct
you to someone who
can. Remember...the life you save may be your own...or many of our 'special
interests'!
Please
continue reading to the bottom of the page and please share on your facebook wall. This release will also be posted on our blog, twitter,
etc.
The following letter was intended to be
mailed certified to United Airline CEO Glenn Tilton in 2003, but was not sent as
a result of threat of termination by United Airlines management as suggested by
ALPA management and ALPA legal at the time.
July 23, 2003
Mr. Glenn Tilton, Chief Executive
Officer
United Airlines
P.O. Box 66100
Chicago, Illinois 60666
Dear Mr. Tilton,
I do not play politics with other peoples’
lives.
I will not compromise aviation safety and security to
ensure the financial survival of United Airlines.
United Airlines is currently conducting unsafe flight
operations. The employee morale is lower
than I have observed in any organization I have ever served. Chronic lethargy is running rampant. It is readily transparent that company
survival concerns have taken precedence over employee issues and aviation safety
and security matters. From my experience
in the past 22 months since 9/11/01, the safety communications processes
established within the company and the union has either broken down or has been
stifled at some level at every turn. The
ALPA, my supposed safety and security buffer and communications link in the work
environment, has either been threatened or gagged. Consequently, this
organization has not addressed obvious security issues because the government
and the industry do not want to “waste” the money on such “trivial” matters
because their very own survival is at stake.
I have appended enclosure (1) for your perusal. I am a patient man and have been so for the past 22 months. I do not believe in using intimidation, coercion, extortion, deceit, manipulation, or exploitation to achieve my goals and objectives. We both know these managerial styles are devoid of all leadership principles exhibited by the truly great leaders and personify the pinnacle of moral depravity.
There are currently individuals in key managerial
positions, both within United Airlines and the ALPA, who have yet to demonstrate
the moral strength and courage (for whatever reason), to address the critical
safety and security issues that we face.
I perceive that they are selfishly directing all energies toward company
survival without due regard to safety.
This effort, although perhaps a capitalistic noble one, is diametrically
in opposition to the ALPA Code of Ethics and every precept of safety this
industry was built on and forces each pilot to compromise his professional
integrity and aviation safety.
I cannot, in good conscience, allow this process to
continue.
This correspondence is sent directly to you to serve notice
that I intend to resubmit reports via appropriate communications channels to
address safety and security concerns that are obvious to you and others in
positions of influence and power in the company and the
union.
I am charged with legal and moral responsibility of the
safe carriage of passengers in commercial jet aircraft. This company is being
driven by the corporate goals of the Marketing and Finance departments. This is
understandable since United Airlines is a commercial enterprise in
bankruptcy. Unfortunately, their goals
and priorities conflict with, and have taken precedence over, most precepts of
aviation safety.
The Flight Operations department has taken a back seat in
perilous times and no one is speaking up on behalf of the pilot group. Why indeed?
If the Marketing and Finance departments are driving our corporate
objectives, then it appears they are clueless and unconcerned about aviation
safety and security and their efforts must be redirected by whatever means
available. Apparent concerns are not
being addressed and necessary departments are not apprised because personnel
somewhere are not doing their jobs or have devious designs for revenue
enhancement.
It appears that the government and airline industry
executives have determined, for financial reasons, that it is necessary to
dismantle unions or otherwise render them powerless thereby diluting the
effectiveness of my critical safety communications link in my job and the
contractual safety provisions while operating in a high-threat, terrorist
environment. Concurrently, they continue
to ignore costly security measures necessary to ensure safe carriage of
passengers. My real concern about my
union is that they are guilty only of complicity under duress in this devious
scheme; a scam that can be proven in a federal court of law and would be very
damaging to all concerned parties. If
this is the case, it cannot be allowed to continue. I am prepared to act and will do
so.
As an aviation safety professional, performing my legal
duties under the moral auspices of the ALPA Code of Ethics, if immediate
response and redirection is not taken by responsible parties, I will be offered
no other recourse but to seek remedy and relief by any and all available and
appropriate means outside of United Airlines and the ALPA, but within the legal
limits of the law. You and I do not want
or need these awkward safety/financial issues to be pulled into the court of
public opinion. I feel so very strongly
about these matters that I am willing to risk my career and my pension and
benefits to achieve my objectives, and am able to do so, if necessary. Peoples’ lives are at stake. I shouldn’t even have to take up your time by
writing this letter to you. You are an
honest man of high moral fiber or you would not be serving in your present
capacity as Chief Executive Officer of United Airlines.
I do not play politics with other peoples’ lives.
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
Capt Dan Hanley
JFK B-777 Captain
United Airlines
Enclosure (1) Letter to Captain Paul Whiteford dated July
12, 2003
cc: Captain Duane
Woerth, ALPA National Chairman
Captain Paul Whiteford, ALPA
UAL-MEC Chairman
Captain Rory Kay, MEC –
Central Air Safety Chmn
Captain J.A. Santiago, MEC –
Professional STDS
Captain Mark Seal, Council
52 Chmn
Captain Bob Falco, Council
52 Professional STDS
Captain Greg Downs, Council
52 Safety
In lieu of the above letter being sent, and as a result of threat
made, Captain
Hanley elected to submit federally-mandated Flight Safety Awareness Reports,
which essentially reflected his sentiments in the above letter, but expounded on
the details of his safety and security concerns. In a word, he was 'fired'
while attempting to protect our 'special interests' during a period of
heightened security alert in the post-9/11 environment. Please click here
to read these reports. The Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security continue to ignore him.
Please never allow this to happen to you in the future. If you
are experiencing difficulties, Contact Us!
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it."
