Told That Older Cases Would Be Assigned A Lower Priority

In a meeting with the FAA's Office of Audit and Evaluation, the FAA Whistleblowers Alliance (FWA) was told recently that the agency was placing a higher priority on cases involving current employees, and those who had left the agency would be pushed to the back burner.

The Washington Examiner reports that FWA Executive Director Gabe Bruno was told at the meeting that older cases would get a lesser priority. He had uncovered a certification scheme in which 33 people who had been certified as mechanics shared the same address in Saudi Arabia. But FAA Office of Audit and Evaluation head Clayton Foushee Jr. told Bruno that while some managers are still abusing their authority, there was basically nothing he could do for people who had already left the agency.

But Government Accountability Project (GAP) Director Tom Devine told the paper that putting those older cases on the back burner is a mistake, and that the agency damages its own credibility by letting them go. Devine said that by letting those cases go, it discourages would-be whistleblowers from coming forward for fear they will be the ones ousted with no recourse.

There was one bright spot. The FAA's former top safety inspector who had reported that Alaska Airlines was falsifying records a year before a stabilizer on one of their planes failed causing it to go down in the Pacific Ocean ... and who exposed the use of vodka as a de-icer in Siberia, was awarded a large settlement after 12 years of litigation.

FMI: www.whistleblower.org