Whistle-blower sues FAA over '90s Alaska Air inspections
Full story:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008013931_whistleblower24m.html
By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter
A former top safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration
in Seattle who complained bitterly about being thwarted by her own
bosses while trying to enforce air-safety standards at Alaska Airlines has
filed a discrimination lawsuit in federal court.
Mary Rose Diefenderfer alleges that sex discrimination and retaliation
for whistle-blower activities forced her to leave the agency in 1999.
Her various claims through agency merit boards, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission and federal appeals courts took 11 years to resolve
before she could file the federal civil lawsuit against the FAA in
U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Diefenderfer is a former airline pilot and pilot instructor who began
working for the FAA in 1988. In 1993, she was appointed assistant
principal operations inspector, overseeing Alaska Airlines from the FAA's
Seattle district office.
Later that year, she was promoted to the principal inspector's job,
which had been vacated by an inspector who warned her of a cozy
relationship between Seattle-based Alaska Airlines and the FAA, according to the
lawsuit.
Over the next several years, Diefenderfer and Alaska Airlines officials
clashed over her efforts to enforce safety regulations. In one of the
more controversial -- and colorful -- confrontations, Diefenderfer took
action against the airline after learning that an executive used
highly flammable vodka to de-ice the wings of an MD-80 jetliner grounded
because of a cold snap in Siberia. She learned about the incident from an
article in the company's newsletter.
She also reported incidents involving falsification of records and
pilot training.
The lawsuit alleges that the company took increasingly aggressive
efforts to stifle Diefenderfer and undermine her team of inspectors and that
her bosses were complicit, eventually removing her as the principal
inspector in 1997 and reprimanding her for talking to the media in 1999.
She resigned from the FAA in 1999.
"Not only was she not supported in her efforts, but several of her
superiors sided with [Alaska Airlines] in an effort to prevent her from
safeguarding public safety through observance of regulations and laws,"
the lawsuit alleges.
The FAA declined to comment.
The following year, the warnings of Diefenderfer and other FAA
inspectors who had complained about Alaska's safety-inspection program were
brought into sharp relief when Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific off
Point Mugu, Calif., killing all 88 on board. An investigation showed
faulty maintenance of a critical stabilizer assembly was responsible for the
crash.
Diefenderfer alleges that she applied for at least 10 other positions
within the FAA but wasn't hired for any of them. She alleges most were
filled with men who were not as qualified for the jobs.
She also alleges discrimination because of her activities as a
whistle-blower, and she says she was denied access to databases and even the
office where she worked. She is asking for reinstatement to her job, back
pay, compensatory damages and attorney fees.
After Diefenderfer left the FAA, she became a vice president for safety
at Pro Air, a discount airline based in Detroit. In 2000, as the FAA
was ordering Pro Air to ground its fleet for safety violations, she
wrote an angry letter to the agency accusing it of singling out Pro Air for
unfair inspections.
Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com
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