The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered Asia Pacific Airlines to pay more than $2 million in wages, damages and attorney’s fees to an employee reprimanded, suspended and later fired for raising aircraft safety concerns and refusing to fly a cargo plane that they believed had an unreliable engine.
Investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the Guam airline, operated by Aero Micronesia Inc., dismissed the pilot’s unease and retaliated against them for exercising their federally protected rights to raise safety concerns.
OSHA learned the pilot repeatedly expressed concerns that the airlines’ maintenance team approved the aircraft maintenance and repair reports without diagnosing the engine problems correctly. A parallel investigation by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration determined the pilot accurately assessed that the Asia Pacific Airlines’ maintenance team used the wrong procedure to troubleshoot and diagnose the engine malfunctions, making it impossible to identify the cause of the problem and fix it before clearing the aircraft to fly.
Despite the FAA’s findings, the airlines’ then-chief pilot and Director of Operations Ralph Freeman maintained throughout OSHA’s investigation that disciplining and terminating the employee was a legitimate action. The agency concluded the pilot’s efforts to report safety concerns contributed to Asia Pacific’s disciplinary actions.
“Asia Pacific Airlines has shown an unacceptable and potentially catastrophic disregard for safety and shamefully viewed pilots’ safety concerns as employee conflicts,” said OSHA Assistant Regional Administrator Ryan Himes in Seattle. “The outcome of this investigation should remind all employees that they are legally protected and can raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation by their employer.”
OSHA ordered Asia Pacific Airlines to pay $419,267 in back pay plus interest, eight years of future salary, $27,596 in interest on loans and restoration of 401k contributions, $75,000 in emotional damages and reasonable attorney fees. In addition, Asia Pacific Airlines was ordered to expunge the employee’s record and provide training to current employees on their rights. Asia Pacific Airlines may appeal the order to the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
In 2019, an Administrative Law Judge ruled that Asia Pacific Airlines violated the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century whistleblower protection provision by illegally terminating a pilot who raised several safety concerns. Since 2014, OSHA has received safety complaints from several of the airline’s pilots.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Tan Holdings Corp. in Saipan, Asia Pacific Airlines operates in Guam, Hawaii and throughout the Pacific. In 1992, the department’s Wage and Hour Division fined a Levi Strauss Marianas garment factory operated by Tan Holdings Corp. more than $9 million for wage violations and worker abuses.
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