Aviation Needs Your Help...

Justice Depends on It!

As you know I have been writing aviation thrillers that have taken a life of their own due to a litany of ongoing events. This is the situation-- in every story there is good and evil. But what happens when the good wins ... but evil prevails? That is not how the world should work. That is definitely not how the story should end. 

I need your help to support the real Darby Bradshaw in her fight for justice. Her attorney has recommended a GoFundMe account to help with her legal fees, that are well over $600,000 and adding up daily, but she has refused. She even sold her home to help finance this fight for safety. Darby's case has turned into a battle of attrition where the airline is utilizing vexatious litigation with stockholder funds to destroy a pilot who was promoting safety.

(Not really Darby, but who should play her in the movie)

Today I am asking the entire Aviation Community and anyone who loves to travel (and read) to please help with this fight for safety and justice. I am not asking anyone to donate money, I am asking everyone to help the real Darby by buying books. Even sharing this post on your social media platforms can help. I am giving 100% of all proceeds directly to the real Darby Bradshaw's legal battle. Buy them for yourself, gift them to others, and know that you are helping create an industry that we can be proud to call aviation, and leave a legacy to those coming up behind us. Please help Darby to continue to survive, as she has already faced the most challenging 6 years of her life that may not end for years to come. 

In Flight For Discovery, we never imagined that Global Air Lines would go to trial after everything that Darby and her attorney discovered. Not to give away any plot points, but in real life, Global went to trial and lost. Global appealed, and they lost again. Global is paying seven attorneys from two of the largest law firms in the United States millions of dollars to defend an indefensible position. This law only provides for "reasonable" attorney fees for the complainant. Depending how long the bad guys drag it out, she could win but financially lose. Darby is not crying... she is standing her ground. Management on the other hand are behaving like two-year-olds.

Global has lost on every front. Today Global managers are stomping their feet and crying. They are throwing all their toys at the wall to see if one sticks, hoping to get their way. We are unsure if the law firms are promoting the current ridiculous litigation, or if this is an executive decision to delay the inevitable and the CEO has told the legal teams to spare no expense and destroy Darby. 

While Darby has won, and won again, the legal proceedings continue. The Department of Labor Administrative review board (ARB) remanded her case back to the original judge because her award was unprecedentedly "too high". There was a reason for that award. While the ARB removed her forward pay and damages, they also decided to allow the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) to reopen the record and allow for new testimony to determine if he was correct in his assumption that the retaliation would be ongoing through the end of her career, and cause her great harm. 

The ALJ will soon learn that he was correct in his predictions, but he could never imagine the depths that the Global management team would go to harm Darby. These legal battles are financially draining-- Global's intent. 

Since Global's recent loss they have (1) filed a petition for review, (2) prematurely filed an appeal in another court out of jurisdiction and prior to the case being closed, (3) filed a motion for a protective order, or, in the alternative for reconsideration, or, in the alternative to certify for an interlocutory review, (4) filed a motion for leave to file reply in support of it's cross-motion for stay, (5) filed an opposition motion to for additional hearings to consider further evidence of lost future earnings, emotional distress, humiliation, and loss of reputation as a result of the airlines adverse action taken against her and engaging in protected activity and for pre-hearing discovery schedule, and (6) filed a 186-page brief in the court they do not belong, to answer a singular question. 

With each event Darby's expenses increase. She needs your help. There are good people working behind the scenes to help me ensure this process never harms anyone else again. Unfortunately, nobody could have possibly known how ineffective the AIR21 statute could be until Global airline management broke the law and then snubbed their nose at it, were too arrogant to quit, and opted to spend millions in litigation versus training pilots or adequately staffing the airlines, at stockholder and passenger expense. 

PLEASE

 ORDER YOUR BOOKS 

TODAY!

Help the Good to Win 

and Prevail! 

NOVELS: 

Flight For Control,  

Flight For Safety, 

Flight For Survival, 

Flight For Sanity, 

Flight For Truth, 

Flight for Discovery

MOTIVATION: 

Flight To Success Be the Captain of Your Life

NON-FICTION: 

Normalization of Deviance, a Threat to Aviation Safety, 

CHILDREN:

I AM AWESOME, The ABC's me 

All Proceeds Go to the real Darby's Litigation Costs

You can purchase them on my blog or on Amazon. 

Ebooks are the easiest and there is no shipping expense.

COMING SOON: 

Flight For Justice

Flight For Revenge

The Truth Behind the Flight For Series

Weaponization of Mental Health

Enjoy the Journey!

And THANK YOU!!

XO Karlene 

Sexual Harassment

In The Airline Industry

Dr. Tony Kern wrote an article in the Skies Magazine addressing Sexual Harassment and the impact on safety in the airline industry, in response to the FAA's report "Breaking Barriers for Women in Aviation." Dr. Kern want's to shout to the world that something is very wrong, and he could not be more right.


Numbers Speak Louder than Words

This is not just a line pilot issue, but many of these numbers involve management and union representatives. The very people who should be setting a positive example. Imagine a line check airman pounding on a female pilot's door at 1 a.m. trying to get her to go out and drink with him on a layover during her captain upgrade training. When she doesn't go out with him he gives her a negative write-up with no recourse. What about a regional director who is talking to a chief pilot and check airman, discussing how a female pilot's pants fit and uses the term cameltoes. He's still a director. Think about the female captain who has her phone taken by a union representative, and he takes pictures of himself and posts them on her facebook page via her phone. She doesn't say anything because, "What good would it do anyway?" Then there is a female pilot who is touched and harassed, and when she turns the union representative down and walks away he throws something at her, she turns and it hits her in the eye, sending her to the emergency room? She doesn't do anything and asserts, "He was just messing around." Fear of retaliation and being labeled is real.

The extent of sexual harassment today is not just about off-color jokes or dirty pictures in the cockpit that we experienced years ago. It wasn't long ago that I listened to a phone recording from a captain to a flight attendant who was working to become a pilot. The message her captain left was that she "would make a better flight attendant than a pilot, and the only reason a woman should be in the cockpit is to give a pilot a blowjob." Airline management took no action when this was reported.

What makes a captain, a regional director, a chief pilot, a training captain, or union representative think they can behave this way? Perhaps it goes back to the culture of the airline. If a married airline VP gets his assistant pregnant and nothing happens to him despite senior management knowing, or a CEO who sleeps with flight attendants, and gets one (or more) pregnant, which becomes the talk of airline, this type of behavior sets the example for all others. The numbers in the FAA report don't lie.

I highly recommend you read Dr. Kern's article:

An Honest Discussion Men Need to Have Right Now. 

Enjoy the Journey
XO Karlene