Is Aircraft Cabin Air Safe?

Dr. Janet Parker's Medical Whistleblower Radio Show

This Wednesday, June 12th, at 11 a.m. Central Daylight, Dr. Janet Parker's Medical Whistleblower Blog Talk Radio Show will cover the topic of toxic air on airplanes and the global controversy swirling around 'fume events' and the resultant illness to passengers and aircrew. Please click here for additional global news reports.

Among the guests on the show will be Captain Tristan Loraine, co-chair of the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE), Judith Murawski, co-chair of GCAQE, possibly public spokesperson Kate Hanni or one of her representatives from the newly-formed passenger rights group AirPassengerAdvocacy.travel, and a medical professional in this field.

This important medical topic should be of concern to the 'special interests' of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association...the millions who travel by commercial air and the dedicated safety professionals who serve them daily. The collective grassroots efforts of the Global Cabin Air Executive, AirPassenger Advocacy.travel, the FAA Whistleblowers Alliance, and the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association operating in concert, must speak out with one loud voice of insistence that Congress immediately address this concern for the safety and health of those who travel by commercial air.


Please tune in here at 11 a.m. Central on Wednesday!

Call in to the show with your questions at (347) 857-4599

The Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE) is the leading organization representing air crew (pilots, cabin crew and engineers), that deals specifically with contaminated air issues and cabin air quality. They represent over 20 organizations, almost half a million aviation workers around the world.

Captain Tristan Loraine – is a former Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 Captain with over 10,000 hours flying experience. Author of the novel ‘Toxic Airlines‘ http://www.toxicairlines.com and producer / director of the feature length documentary film ‘Welcome Aboard Toxic Airlines‘ http://welcomeaboardtoxicairlines.com that triggered two calls for a public inquiry in the United Kingdom. Member of numerous international committees dealing with contaminated air issues. Voting member of SPC-161 ASHRAE Committee.

Are You Mildly Displeased With Air Travel Today?

Are You Mildly Displeased With Air Travel Today?

August 9, 2009

Passenger Rights Stakeholder Hearing

On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, the passenger rights group AirPassengerAdvocacy.travel and other consumer groups and travel industry organizations will conduct a Stakeholder Hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building regarding airline passenger rights. The purpose of the hearing is to examine passenger safety-related problems such as extended ground delays. Desired outcomes from the hearing include a better understanding of passenger safety problems; best practices from the EU in the area of passenger protections; and the potential efficacy of proposed Congressional solutions. Experts representing all sides in this debate have been invited to participate in this hearing.


In addition to audience members attending the hearing, stakeholders will comprise “Witnesses” and “Questioners.” Witness panels will include passengers and airline, airport, association and government executives as well as functional-area experts from acadème and industry. Witnesses will present 5-minute statements. After all statements are made, Questioners will address their queries to each of the Witnesses. Questioners will include corporate travel managers, functional area experts and former DOT IGs. Also joining as Questioners will be members of the press to provide an extra measure of impartiality.

The Stakeholder Hearing will also have a roundtable discussion among Senators and Representatives interested in this issue moderated by a media luminary.

While attendance is free of charge, registration is necessary at http://eventbrite.twi.bz/b and seating is limited.

Anyone desiring to personally contact the host for this event please do so here .

Attendance At This Event

Even to the most casual observer within the ranks of employees within airline industry, the FAA, and airline passengers, the management failures within the senior ranks of the airlines and the FAA have become blatantly obvious in terms of poor service and airline employee morale, and apparent chaos and lack of appropriate oversight within the FAA and the Department of Transportation. Relevant congressional oversight committees to date have failed to appropriately address these serious concerns, which negatively impacts the current dismal bottom-line profits, or lack thereof, within the airline industry. FAA and airline employees have had enough, as have the passengers they serve.

The subject hearing on September 22nd is your opportunity to show your phenomenal displeasure regarding dismal failures in airline management and passenger service in camera's view and before members of Congress and the American traveling public. Representatives of grassroots whistleblower groups from the FAA, airline employees, medical health professionals/passenger health groups, the traveling public, and others are attending this hearing. Will you?

If you live in the DC area, it is hoped that you will attend in your airline uniform and participate in this important grassroots movement of 'We the People' . Government and management have failed us the past eight years and it's time we tell them that 'we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!'. We are hoping for maximum participation at this event and, if you fail to support this effort, then you must resign yourself to the hell that you've endured the past eight years.

Passenger service, safety, comfort, and health are at risk at present. It is an gross understatement to say that airline employees are displeased with what has transpired the past eight years. Get mad as hell...be there on September 22nd! Register for the event here.

Are airline pilots losing jobs because they complained?

Please Watch This KHOU CBS News Clip: http://www.khou.com/video/index.html?nvid=386864


Are airline pilots losing jobs because they complained?

06:52 PM CDT on Thursday, August 6, 2009

By Brad Woodard / 11 News

HOUSTON—The federal courthouse in downtown Houston has seen more than its share of big names, but chances are you’ve never heard the name Newton Dickson.

He’s one of several pilots from various airlines who say they’ve lost their careers because they complained about everything from management to safety issues.
In fact, for three days now, a drama has quietly unfolded in a courtroom on loan to an NTSB judge.

Gregory Winton is Dickson’s attorney.

“The FAA uses this procedure to pull captains out of the cockpit at least the airlines do and the FAA supports it,” said Winton.

Dickson wasn’t a captain yet but he was a first officer for Continental Airlines until 2004. In April of that year, he says he tripped in a London restaurant and hit his head on a table. A woman at the restaurant called an ambulance, said Winton.

“She says a man stood up, fell and is shivering. When asked if he were conscious, the woman hands the phone to a bystander who is a customer of the restaurant and he confirms Mr. Dickson is breathing and conscious, and bleeding a little bit from the nose,” said Winton.

Dickson was taken to a hospital and released the next day. He was cleared to fly by an airman medical examiner. He was back in the cockpit within a month.

But, while flying from Vegas to Houston, Dickson says the captain who was supposed to be training him threw a temper tantrum. Dickson, who had a clean medical certificate issued by the FAA, says he complained to the airline.

“Continental decided, on their own, they would send him to a third party contractor who’d known as their fitness duty evaluator,” said Winton.

Michael A. Berry conducted the evaluation. He concluded that Dickson hadn’t just tripped in London, but that he had suffered a seizure followed by a disturbance of consciousness during the flight from Vegas. The diagnosis, Dickson said, meant that his career was over.

No decision has been made in Dickson's case.

Continental Airlines officials would not comment on the case saying it is a personnel issue.

Support Newton Dickson!




Dr. Janet Parker Blog Talk Radio Show

This Saturday evening at 5pm Central Daylight Time, former Continental Airlines pilot Newton Dickson and United Airlines Captain Dan Hanley will join host Dr. Janet Parker on her Medical Whistleblower Blog Talk Radio Show. Call-ins are welcome, especially from airline employees who have been terminated at airlines via an airline-forced medical or psychiatric evaluation for having spoken out on issues of safety. Please tune in to show your support for Mr. Dickson, while expressing your outrage to your congressional representatives. Your senators may be contacted here and your representatives here. This is all about airline passenger and aircrew safety.

Please pass this email on to your family, friends, and neighbors!

Call-in Number: (347) 857-4599

The traveling public owe their safety in the air to those who behind the scenes maintain air flight safety. We will be talking today about how pilots are responsible to report issues of airplane maintenance and safety and what happens when they do. The Colgan Air Flight 3407 departed late from Newark on February 12, 2009, at 9:20 p.m. EST. Shortly after the last communication by the flight crew with approach control at 10:11 p.m. (03:11, February 13 UTC), the plane stalled less than a mile northeast of the Outer Marker while on an ILS approach to Runway 23 and crashed into a house in the northeast Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center. Could this plane disaster have been avoided if only airline management listen to the whistleblowers? Listen to these experienced pilots as they tell you the real behind the scenes story.

Important Airline Whistleblower News!

Illegal Licensing of Aircraft Mechanics/Outsourcing of Maintenance Work to Foreign Countries

As many are aware, there have been numerous news reports of late concerning the retesting of aircraft mechanics, and other airline maintenance irregularities by news reporter Byron Harris and investigative producer Mark Smith of WFAA News 8, an ABC News affiliate in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Harris and Mr. Smith have contacted our association seeking additional information from any airline employee, but especially pilots and mechanics, regarding this critical safety issue. Additionally, they are soliciting comments from active airline employees and others. Anonymity is guaranteed if so desired.

Please contact Mr. Harris at 214-748-9631 or bharris@wfaa.com and Mr. Smith at 214-748-9631 or msmith@wfaa.com.

Additionally, at a June 17th hearing held by Senator Dorgan concerning the Colgan Air disaster, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) raised issues regarding the outsourcing of maintenance to foreign repair stations citing concern over the lack of U.S. government oversight of this maintenance work. She pointed out that there are airlines flying narrow-body aircraft without passengers to some of these stations solely for the purpose of performing this maintenance work. This should give cause for alarm by every aircrew member flying the line, and not just international crews. Please contact Senator McCaskill's office by phone/email/fax and advise her of your concerns. She needs to hear from you.


Suppression of Airline Employee Whistleblowers is Systemic

As promulgated yesterday, the OpEd News article, Suppression of Airline Whistleblowers is Systemic, addresses the issue of the wrongful suppression of safety whistleblowers in the airline industry through airline-forced medical or psychiatric evaluations, which denigrates the level of air passenger safety. It is hopeful that this article was broadly disseminated to all.

This article has been placed in the General News category with tags: Airline Airplane Crashes, Airline Security, Airlines, Airlines, Conference, Crashes, Hearings, Other, Psychiatry, Radio, Transportation, Trauma, Whistleblowers-ing, Workplace. Please be advised that the article will be carried by more newspapers if we get people to include comments on the bottom of the article. This increases it's rating and thus increases the number of newspaper outlets it will be sent to.

Also, at the bottom of the article you are given the opportunity to click on the link labeled Airline Safety Whistleblowers Express Concerns, providing you with a communications avenue to send your comments to your local newspapers and congressional representatives. It takes but a few minutes to complete the form. Congress and the traveling public needs to understand your expressed outrage over the dismantling of airline employee contracts, which resulted in horrific scheduling practices, and diminishment of safety concerns over the past several years, while airline employees have been intimidated with threats of liquidation of their airline and their safety voices stifled. Speak out loudly NOW, or forever hold your peace.

Rob Kall, the editor of OpEd News, has recently petitioned his readership for funding during these troubled financial times. If you can spare the money, please contribute to this honest online news site!


Medical Whistleblower Blog Talk Radio Show

This Saturday evening at 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time, Dr. Janet Parker will once again host former United Airlines Captain Dan Hanley and hopefully another guest airline whistleblower on her Blog Talk Radio Show Medical Whistleblower as we discuss issues concerning the suppression of airline whistleblowers through the practice of hostile workplace forced psychiatric and medical evaluations. Call-ins to the program are welcomed at (347) 857-4599 and you may remain anonymous if you desire. We would particularly like to hear from airline employees who have endured this wrongful practice or know of someone who has.

This 'gun to the head' intimidating and implicit threat to would-be whistleblowers must be exposed, as it grossly diminishes airline safety for the millions who travel by commercial air. For obvious reasons, this concern will never be discussed in the halls of Congress, nor will it be addressed by members of the current ongoing DOT meetings taking place in Washington in the aftermath of the Colgan Air disaster. Revamped safety reporting processes are of little value, if this threat remains.

Ideally, commercial aviation safety must necessarily be sustained in a vacuum unimpeded by external financial, legal, and political pressures. Anyone who has endured the past eight years in the industry fully realize that this has been far from the case. Collectively, we must 'unload this gun' of suppression through media or other exposure means. Passenger and aircrew lives are at stake. Politicians must deal with pressures exerted by K-Street and Wall Street lobbyist, and labor unions must live by labor law, while immersed in the cesspool of 'special interests' of Washington politics. Our independent grassroots association have 'special interests' also...our special interests are the millions who travel by commercial air and the dedicated safety professionals who serve them...the airline employees. Do your part...speak out!


Senate Hearing Tomorrow

This Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 10 AM in Russell Senate Office Building Room 253, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security, will hold a hearing concerning Aviation Safety: The Relationship Between Network Airlines and Regional Airlines. Schedules permitting, it is strongly encouraged that all airline employees living in the Washington DC area attend this important hearing in your uniform. There is a media table located in the hearing room, which gives you access to news reporters both before and after the hearing. This provides airline employees the opportunity to bend the ears of the mainstream media with your comments and concerns face-to-face. It's your career...go bend some ears!

The witnesses for this hearing conveniently excludes the voice of airline employees or union leaders, and for some strange reason, the hour and a half hour hearing isn't being carried on televised C-Span 1, but is available for viewing online on C-Span 3. C-Span 1 will be covering the status of the U.S. Postal Service during this same time frame.

Opening Remarks

Captain Stephen M. Dickson
Senior Vice President Flight Operations
Delta Air Lines, Inc.



Captain Don Gunther
Vice President for Safety
Continental Airlines, Inc.



Mr. Peter Bowler
President and Chief Executive Officer
American Eagle Airlines



Mr. Philip H. Trenary
President and Chief Executive Officer
Pinnacle Airlines Corp.

Suppression Of Airline Whistleblowers Is Systemic

Suppression Of Airline Whistleblowers Is Systemic

by MedicalWhistleblower

www.opednews.com

According to Dan Hanley, public spokesperson for a grassroots air safety advocacy group Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association (www.airline-whistleblowers.org) suppression of airline employees from speaking out on issues of public transportation safety is systemic throughout the airline industry based on reports being received.

Airline Pilot, Dan Hanley, is working with Dr. Janet Parker, spokesperson for Medical Whistleblowers (www.blogtalkradio.com/medicalwhistleblower) to expose the truth about retaliation against Transportation Whistleblowers.

Join us for the Blog Talk radio show on Saturday August 8, 2009 at 5 PM Central Time or Call in (34... click on the Medical Whistleblower show on the internet and listen through your computer at www.blogtalkradio.com/medicalwhistleblower, or download the audio tape for free from the archives.

Airline management has employed forced medical or psychiatric evaluations on would-be whistleblowing employees for the purpose of termination of their employment. This problem of forced workplace psychiatric evaluations of whistleblowers is true nationwide and affects professionals in many disciplines. This has a chilling effect on other employees in the workplace for reporting other issues of concern, and thus in light of the consequences to their colleagues other potential whistleblowers are afraid to come forward. This results in a serious degradation of air safety that must be addressed by US Congress. To date, no mention has been made of this issue in any of the congressional hearings held concerning the Colgan Air Disaster. Human lives are at stake and the problem must be addressed. Forced medical and psychiatric exams by airline-appointed medical personnel must be addressed.

The two main situations where hired guns are employed are when the employer wants to discredit and if possible get rid of the employee; and in Workers’ Compensation cases where the employee is claiming for a psychiatric injury, and the employer wants to avoid liability. If you throw enough mud at the whistleblower some of it will be expected to stick. The use of psychiatry to discredit the whistleblower is easier than with a physical disability because it is a soft science, lacking hard evidence such as X-rays, laboratory results, and pathological specimens, thus medical reports are much more easily falsified.

Hired gun psychiatrists are frequently employed by the employer to discredit the whistleblowing employee Psychiatry is more open to opinions even if unsubstantiated by true evidence of disability. In addition by creating a psychiatric diagnosis the employer can then dismiss the employee and will be able to counter any demand for damages in civil court for wrongful dismissal of a whistleblower.

This is tremendously unfair to the whistleblower victim of such abusive tactics because the psychiatric diagnosis carries a severe stigma in our society and the actual process of the psychiatric examination is often traumatic in and of itself. This retaliation technique also causes a workplace hostility which then will ultimately lead the employee to develop psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. So this is an extremely effective way to discredit the whistleblower, as well as their complaints. It is common for supposedly confidential reports to be overtly or covertly circulated where they can do most damage. Secondly, in therapy a whistleblower may be compelled to relive the trauma which can lead to a secondary re-traumatization. If for a medico-legal purpose, the patient is forced by their employer to see an abusive hired gun, that the traumatic damage to the patient can be severe. It is not uncommon for the employer to continue to force the whistleblowing employee to see several psychiatrists and thus continue to search for one who will bring back a diagnosis that suits the employer’s taste.

Two Whistleblowing Airline Captains Reveal All on Radio

Below is the link to Dr. Janet Parkers Blog Talk Radio interview of August 1, 2009 with airline whistleblowers retired Delta Captain Wayne Witter and United Captain Dan Hanley regarding airline management suppression of whistleblowers through employment of hostile workplace forced psychiatric evaluations.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MedicalWhistleblower/2009/08/01/The-Melodious-Whistleblowing-Canary

Please take the time to listen to this important interview and then kindly pass this email on to every airline employee that you know, as well as your family, friends, and neighbors and ask them to do the same. Air passenger and aircrew lives are at stake.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, kindly use the 'Contact Us' page of our website.

Whistleblowing Airline Pilots on Blog Talk Radio August 1st!

On Saturday, August 1st, Dr. Janette Parker will be hosting retired Delta Captain Wayne Witter and United Captain Dan Hanley on her medical whistleblower show. The topic of discussion will be the current business practice of employing hostile workplace psychiatric evaluations to suppress and intimidate whistleblowers.

Please be sure to tune in to the show, as it addresses the critical importance of pilots being able to address airline safety issues without fear of recrimination.

Janette's show:
www.blogtalkradio.com/medicalwhistleblower