Criminal Intent and the ASAP System!

How is This Even Possible?

The ASAP program at SWA is compromised 

in more ways that one!!

Note to pilots everywhere: Don't believe what you write is confidential in the ASAP system. Pilots at SWA are in fact being disciplined. SWAPA's Casey Murray, President, and Tom Nekouei, Vice President, sent a memo to the pilot group discussing the many challenges and highlighted:

"In the case of the ASAP, SWAPA has had to put the Company on notice on multiple occasions due to their propensity to schedule disciplinary meetings despite ASAP and ERC [event review committee] recommendations." 

"Disciplinary Meetings at an All Time High"  

"The individuals responsible for creating our current safety and training problems cannot be the ones in charge of fixing them. And yet, kingdoms continued to be protected."  

Southwest Management is using the ASAP system to punish pilots, while at the same time they are hiding behind it to protect themselves! 

We all know pilots talk. And when those evaluating these cases are appalled by management's behavior nothing is sacred. Here we have a union upset that the company is using the system to punish the pilots, and yet management is running amok, withholding information from the captain, allowed a plane to operate illegally and then hid behind the ASAP system. 

Situation:

Executives on a plane together. The VP of Safety, SMS manager, Mr. David Hunt, realizes his seat is broken. Legally this plane cannot fly until it's either fixed or deferred and unoccupied. As the head of safety, he should know this... right? But he doesn't tell the captain, instead he tells another executive on the plane, Mr. Landon Nitschke, who happens to be the SVP of Maintenance. Nitschke doesn't tell the captain either. These executives don't want to delay their plans.

What these executives do next is call the arrival station to have it fixed there. No write up in the logbook before departure. No deferral. No advising the flight crew. Just knowingly and willingly operate a broken plane. And these men are in charge of Safety and Maintenance at SWA!!! They both know the federal regulations and intentionally allowed this plane to operate illegally. 

§ 121.363 states the certificate holder holds the responsibility for airworthiness. This should not be taken lightly. 

Worse yet, the SWA ASAP manager, Jim Ison, closed the case! The fix was to tell these executives they can't violated federal regulations in the future. This is intentional and willful neglect of the law. 

Do you think this event belongs in the ASAP system to protect executives intentional violation of federal regulations? I don't believe so. ASAP was enacted for identification of human factors errors to improve  operational safety. This event is pure negligence. 

Personally I think both these executives should be looking for jobs outside a safety industry. The FAA should have pulled this report from the program and conducted an investigation. Why didn't they?

What do you think?

Should these guys receive a free pass because they are management, while the captain had to spend his day off writing an ASAP report to protect his license as the result of the willful negligence of two senior vice presidents?

Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727

Training to Blame?

NTSB Investigating!

Are they looking in the right place? 

People want to know why the Delta A350 didn't stop? Did they not see the other plane? The couldn't see the wing from the flight deck. Maybe the first officer was taxiing. The first officer could not see the wing. It was the fault of the other plane for being in the way. All sorts of reasons. But I hope when the NTSB looks into this, they look into training. 

Delta's 7th ground incursion since January! 

Durning my return to the A330 there was a significant change in training from when I earned a type rating on the plane years earlier. Delta was now saving money by not using motion on the simulator training events for type ratings. FAA approved. During my Captain's check ride, the check airman said, "You taxi shitty!" 

To his defense I said, "He's only had one opportunity during training to taxi with motion before now and he's coming off the 737."  The check airman was deeply concerned and said he would look into it. I think they increased the motion simulator event, but I am not positive by how many. But this training problem is more than simulator. 

Back in the day we had to know our aircraft limitations and dimensions, even be able to draw the electrical system during our FAA oral. Today, Delta gives their pilots an LOD, Learning objective document, which is simply the answers to the electronic test. If you memorize well, you pass. But I suppose the memories were not that good, so Delta decided to make this electronic test an open book test. Delta pilots do not need to know the physical dimensions of their plane, they can look it up. I wonder how many even know  the width of the taxiway? 

In this case, the A350 was schedule to depart behind the RJ, and they were having problems. Then were cleared to taxi forward down E to V. But the RJ had not pulled up all the way to the hold short line. 

First, pilots should not accept a clearance that will make them hit another plane. This is not the fault of the RJ. Just as you are not allowed to hit the car in an intersection, because you have a green light. 

There were many times I sat in that A350 seat and told the captain to stop, because I wasn't sure on the clearance distance. One time we sent another pilot back to look out the window for a better angle. Other times we queried ATC. 

Was this crew distracted by the problem? Did they blindly follow a clearance? Did the first officer not understand his responsibility? Did this captain receive minimum training with motion during taxi? Did they both look up the answers for the wingspan of the A350 without learning them? 

I hope the NTSB investigation looks deep into, because 7 ground incursions in 6 months is far too many... don't you think? 

Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727

Pilot Training

More Not Less

We know what happened to the Brazilian ATR aircraft that killed 61 people. The plane was in a flat spin. What we don't know is why it happened.  

Back in the 1979-80, when I was just learning to fly, the FAA had stopped requiring spin training. My instructor said that we only had to learn how to recover from a stall. I asked him if we could still do it? He was pleased to comply. 

I  cut the power as I pulled the nose up and the plane stalled. He then he jammed in the rudder and we spun. Did the crew of this ATR enter a stall and as one wing dropped a pilot reacted by jamming in a rudder? Did they put their aircraft into a spin? Was ice involved? Was the problem the T-tail? There are many variables and rarely, if ever, its just one thing that causes a plane to crash.

We will know that answer when the they analyze the data recently received.  

This is not the fist time an ATR plane crashed.  In October of 1994, American Eagle, Fight 4184, was subject to freezing rain during a holding pattern, ice built up on the wings, and during descent the plane rolled. The autopilot disengaged and the plane crashed into a filed in Indiana, killing all 68 people on board.

T-tail aircraft are a problem with ice. Was the plane heavily loaded aft? I wonder when the cost of life will out weigh the profits of operating this aircraft. 

I also wonder if it was possible for them to get out of this spin once they entered. Or would this plane be unrecoverable. I posed that question to a friend and he sent me an interesting video. Beechcraft is also a twin engine T-tail aircraft, and they did spin testing. Mine spin training was in a Cessna 172.

Pilots have you received Spin Training?

While airlines and the FAA think reduced training is okay because of automation, this ideology might just be breeding an industry of pilots who lack aerodynamical skills. I am not making that claim against these pilots, I'm just curious if this is an overall problem. As my doctoral research identified, the more pilots train their performance decreases, of which is basis for Normalization of Deviance, a Threat to Aviation Safety. 

Twin Spin Testing Beechcraft Twin Video

Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727

Truth, Justice, and Human Life

Pilots Taking Back Control

The HIMS Program has grown in scope and reach well beyond its original intended purpose of creating a controlled and monitored pathway for pilots, with issues involving alcohol, to return to work before the mandated 24 months of required abstinence as prescribed by law. The Supreme Court has recently ruled on Chevron deference, which opens the door to the argument that the FAA’s application of the HIMS program has exceeded its statutory mandate.

What you are about to read is an abomination of the HIMS program. The story of a captain who has been derailed by the system that is supposed to support and assist. He is fighting back. If you are in the HIMS program, you can help. 

My name is Martin Barnard, I am an airline pilot, a living breathing human being with a loving family that depends on me, and I was in the HIMS program, under the care of a Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) Aviation Medical Examiner (AME). 

I do not drink and have not for going on four years. 

I have flawless and uninterrupted FAA random testing, consistent with FAA standards, to document this. 

On a single occasion in September 2022, I thought with disbelief that I may have inadvertently and without knowledge consumed something with alcohol in it, instead of the non-alcohol (0.0) beverage as was intended. I disclosed this to my HIMS AME. 

I conducted a highly sensitive blood PEth test roughly three days after the event, which produced yet another negative result further corroborating my abstinence. Nevertheless, on October 14, 2022, this HIMS AME wrote to the FAA that I was at “increased risk for a full relapse,” which was soon followed by the revocation of my Special Issuance first class medical certificate, 

In support of his October 14 report to the FAA, the HIMS AME stated that his finding was based on three considerations: 

(1) that I had three “dilute” specimens in the prior year, 

(2) that the result of my October 3 2022 PEth test was “sub threshold,” and 

(3) the motivation to purchase beer-like beverages, “whether alcohol containing or not” is “suggestive of an imperfect recovery.” 

I have decided to file a lawsuit against this HIMS AME for what I consider to be his negligent actions, including, in part: 

The HIMS AME reported the three test results as “dilute,” notwithstanding the fact that the laboratory had reported the result of each specimen as “negative-dilute,” thereby confirming that the tests confirmed the absence of alcohol in my system.

To the extent that The HIMS AME had any concern that the three “dilute” specimens reflected donor tampering, he should have proceeded with direct observation collections that would have cleared me of any alleged misconduct.

The creatinine levels for the three “dilute” test results evidenced nothing beyond appropriate hydration practices and that I had abstained from the consumption of alcohol. The HIMS AME should have communicated to the FAA that the result of the hypersensitive October 3 PEth test result was a “negative.”

The HIMS AME should have communicated to the FAA that the October 3 PEth result provides strong evidence establishing that I had maintained my commitment to complete abstention from alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, the paragraph in which The HIMS AME references the PEth result reads as follows: Looking back at the airman’s random testing, he has had three dilute specimens this year.

The HIMS AME reference to the October 3 PEth test result as “sub threshold” appears to have been understood by the FAA as evidence that I was ingesting alcohol despite the fact the test was negative.

The third and final basis for the relapse diagnosis that the HIMS AME communicated to the FAA was that “whether or not alcohol consumption occurred, it is an early teaching in formal recovery that ‘look alike’ beverages, alcohol containing or not, were contraindicated for those in recovery program.”

The HIMS AME never advised me that I should abstain from non-alcoholic “look alike” beverages or that the consumption of such beverages could potentially lead to relapse. NOTE: Nor have I ever signed anything agreeing to such a standard.

DOWNLOAD FULL DETAILS OF THIS CASE HERE

I was immediately ordered, under penalty of termination, without the ability to make life arrangements into: Metro Atlanta Recovery Residences (MARR) a 98-day highly invasive, intensive inpatient mental hospital. Fellow pilots have characterized the program as akin to an imprisonment. I then would have been required to sign a “Contract B” which allows for termination without cause for any alcohol-related incident, or I would be immediately terminated. 

Given these unjustifiable demands, I have taken leave from my airline, pursuant to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment, Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) to continue my 30+ year military career with honor. I am fully Mission ready and deploy worldwide in a flying status; I am current and qualified in my Major Weapon System and will continue to serve my country until I retire with honor. My intention upon retiring from the US military, in accordance with USERRA law, will be to return to my airline as a full-time line pilot.

Despite USERRA law, my Airline has indicated that it intends to terminate me upon my return from Military Service. This has been conveyed to me numerous times verbally, and I have received written documentation to this intention dated 18 Sep 2023. Based upon The HIMS AME actions, I am filing a malpractice lawsuit against him.

My overall objective of this lawsuit is twofold: 

1) To bring due process to the HIMS program. There is currently no mechanism available for due process or checks and balances of any kind in today’s HIMS program should there be any disagreement of any kind between the different entities. This lack of due process allowing HIMS AME’s and unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the FAA to act with absolute impunity in all situations renders the pilot completely vulnerable and without recourse.

2) My second objective is to set precedent that HIMS AME’s can be held liable for negligent actions that inflict harm on the lives of the patients/pilots they have agreed to “sponsor.” 

I respectfully request assistance from all that are willing, in any way you can help achieve these objectives. Please download the affidavit  below and share with as many people as possible. Those that come after us will greatly appreciate what you have done here. Thank you for your time and consideration!

DOWNLOAD THE AFFIDAVIT HERE

Email to: marty.barnard@yahoo.com

I'm proud of Captain Barnard's effort to make a difference and assist everyone in this program. AMEs should not have immunity from their actions. And, every doctor should be held accountable. The fact that any doctor could possibly distort the truth of fact based evidence in such a negligent manner, and in my opinion intentional, should be of the greatest concern to all.  If you are unfamiliar with the HIMS program and want to learn more, please read the previous posts:

Warning to all Pilots

Alcohol and Pilots

Alcohol Use Disorder

THANK YOU 

For your Assistance! 

Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727

Working in a Safe Space

You're Invited To Attend! 

I will be the keynote speaker at the 2024 Workplace Promise Institute conference on September 12, 2024 in Washington DC, and hope that you can join me. You might just witness something that I have never done in public before, and hear something that could change your life. 

Whistleblowers Unite

The purpose of the conference is to spread awareness of whistleblower mental health and related issues. The conference is for whistleblowers who want to learn more about their rights and protections and be part of a peer support network. 

Those who attend the conference will share with other whistleblowers and survivors about their lessons learned and strategies for coping and resilience. They will hear from attorneys, government officials and advocates about the current status of laws, programs and policies that affect them and have an opportunity to influence those practices. 

Whistleblowers of America (WoA) welcomes family members to participate and is in the process of developing opportunities for the children of whistleblowers to engage in a mentor program. The Workplace Promise Institute WPI will also include discussion on Whistleblower Protection advocate certification, and announce Giraffe Award winners. 

I hope to see you there!

Enjoy the Journey!

Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727

Boeing Pleads Guilty to Criminal Fraud and...

John Barnett is Gone

John Barnett's Life and Death had purpose

Praise Mr. Barnett for 

Giving His Life 

To Save Yours

Authorities found John Barnett in his car holding a gun in his lap, with a finger on the trigger. But that gun had a huge kickback and therefore would impossible to be in that position with his finger still on the trigger. Notwithstanding that there was no blood splatter inside the car, no photographs of the scene, and earlier that day he had just provided evidence to prove Boeing of criminal fraud.

Mr. Barnett had four hours of deposition remaining the following day. Having walked in his shoes, I will tell you that nobody walks off the field in the fourth quarter of the super bowl when you’re ahead, despite the stress and battering of the game. All this leads me to believe that this was more than a suicide.  While we cannot bring Mr. Barnett back to life, at the very least his death will not be in vain, because his death has ignited others to change the law. 

As you know I have been fighting for reform of the AIR21 law for years. I created a petition for that effort. Please sign HERE if you have not done so yet. Now, in the shadow of Mr. Barnett's death, action is finally being taken. I worked closely with, and fought for language, in the AIR21 reform act with attorneys and officials from DC. While they did not get this on the Aviation Reauthorization Act this last round, we must encourage this change sooner than later. You can help by writing to your Congressmen, Senator the FAA administration, the Aviation Transportation Board, or your local newspaper and send the copy attached here. 

Let's Improve Aviation Safety Together

Memorandum  From: Stakeholders favoring stronger protection for aviation safety advocates.  

To: Relevant Congressional offices and committees 

Re: Language to modernize AIR21 protections 

The recent death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett highlights the inadequacy of protections under the AIR21 statute. 49 U.S.C. §42121(a). The Boeing fiascos are déjà vu about a quality control breakdown that could and should have been corrected long ago. 

Mr. Barnett had been protesting for over a decade, initially through the Boeing corporation and then through current legal rights (the AIR21 procedural mechanisms) that proceeded at a molasses pace. When anti-retaliation rights in AIR21 were first enacted in 2000, they reflected best practices at the time. Over a decade later, however, they have become badly outdated and now are primitive compared to 16 corporate whistleblower laws that Congress subsequently enacted unanimously. 

While some additional amendments have been made to AIR21 in recent years, Barnett’s death and the ongoing significant safety failures with airplanes demonstrate that AIR21 must be strengthened to encourage workers in the industry to speak up before passengers are harmed. The suggestions below are for an AIR21 Safety Advocate Act, which we think the current law should be renamed. These recommendations are the menu of where AIR21 needs updating to keep pace with other corporate accountability laws, and include language to provide solutions.  

Read the Entire Memo Here

I'm not sure if a plea deal is justice,

But a law change would be!

Enjoy the Journey!

Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727

Happy Independence Day 2024!

 Celebrate!

Yesterday we prepared for the big day today as we watched the eagles soar. I'm hoping everyone has a blessed holiday, and we can all celebrate a little independence today. 

Life is Good! 

The fun is about to begin. 

Enjoy the Journey!
Dr. Karlene Petitt

PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727