Dominic Gates at The Seattle Times has a shocking story about how a Delta pilot was fired for mental health reasons after reporting safety issues. She ended up being reinstated after a legal battle lasting years, as it was exposed just how one-sided Delta’s investigation was.
In December 2016, Delta Air Lines fired Karlene Petitt, an Airbus A330 pilot, after she was labeled mentally unfit for duty. She had been grounded since March 2016, pending an evaluation by a company-assigned doctor.
Petitt had been a commercial airline pilot for 35 years, raised three children, earned a doctorate and two master’s degrees, and wrote a series of books, all while being an airline pilot. So, what’s the issue?
In November 2015, Petitt had sent emails to supervisors at the airline, criticizing Delta’s safety culture. Specifically, she had been working on her doctorate in aviation safety, and in late 2015 she listened to an interview with Delta’s CEO at the time, where he said it’s the duty of all employees to speak up if they’re aware of any safety issues.
So Petitt made this the topic of her thesis. She began requesting meetings with her supervisors at Delta. She had allegedly presented a report that listed a series of lapses and included analysis on some nearly catastrophic incidents.
Less than a week later, Delta’s VP of Flight Operations at the time, sent an email to a pilot manager below him, indicating that he would put an end to...
It’s starting to look like somebody’s got a serious vendetta against Future and will stop at nothing to try and destroy his brand and career because the math isn’t mathing and facts just aren’t li...