Awful: Delta Labels Whistleblower Pilot As “Bipolar”

Dominic Gates at The Seattle Times has a shocking story about how a Delta pilot was fired for mental health reasons after reporting safety issues. She ended up being reinstated after a legal battle lasting years, as it was exposed just how one-sided Delta’s investigation was.

Delta tries to fire “bipolar” whistleblower pilot

In December 2016, Delta Air Lines fired Karlene Petitt, an Airbus A330 pilot, after she was labeled mentally unfit for duty. She had been grounded since March 2016, pending an evaluation by a company-assigned doctor.

Petitt had been a commercial airline pilot for 35 years, raised three children, earned a doctorate and two master’s degrees, and wrote a series of books, all while being an airline pilot. So, what’s the issue?

In November 2015, Petitt had sent emails to supervisors at the airline, criticizing Delta’s safety culture. Specifically, she had been working on her doctorate in aviation safety, and in late 2015 she listened to an interview with Delta’s CEO at the time, where he said it’s the duty of all employees to speak up if they’re aware of any safety issues.

So Petitt made this the topic of her thesis. She began requesting meetings with her supervisors at Delta. She had allegedly presented a report that listed a series of lapses and included analysis on some nearly catastrophic incidents.

Less than a week later, Delta’s VP of Flight Operations at the time, sent an email to a pilot manager below him, indicating that he would put an end to Petitt’s flying by exercising “Section 15,” which would label her too mentally unstable to be a pilot. He wrote the following in an email:

“We should consider whether a Section 15 is appropriate. If she cannot embrace and understand the reasons behind our actions, it stands to reason she might not be able to make appropriate decisions for the safe operation of a flight.”

In 2016, Delta hired a doctor that the company had a longstanding relationship with, who evaluated Petitt as having bipolar disorder. That doctor later testified in court that his diagnosis was partly driven by the number of accomplishments of Petitt, claiming that what she accomplished was “well beyond what any woman I’ve ever met could do,” suggesting she was manic.

The catch is, Delta’s process for these situations allows an accused pilot to select an independent medical examiner. Petitt engaged a panel of nine experts from the Mayo Clinic’s Aerospace Medicine Department. They unanimously concluded that she didn’t have any psychiatric disorders. A doctor on the panel testified that the diagnosis was “a puzzle for the group.” As he explained:

“The evidence does not support presence of a psychiatric diagnosis but does support an organizational/corporate effort to remove this pilot from the rolls.”

Delta tried to fire a pilot for mental health reasons

Delta pilot fights back, wins

With her career at Delta seemingly over in late 2016, Petitt didn’t give up. Rather, she fought back. After a legal battle lasting around six years, Petitt has been fully vindicated:

  • To start, Petitt had her job reinstated after the Mayo Clinic panel sided with her; for quite some time she has been back to flying wide body jets out of Seattle
  • Delta has had to pay Petitt $500,000 as compensation, in addition to paying for years of legal fees
  • The doctor who diagnosed Petitt as having bipolar disorder forfeited his medical license, rather than facing charges over his conduct
  • The judge overseeing the case ruled it “improper for [Delta] to weaponize this process for the purposes of obtaining blind compliance by its pilots”

Petitt’s attorney, Lee Seham, has represented dozens of aviation whistleblowers, and says he has “never before been in such an ugly war of attrition as with Delta,” and accused Delta of a “Soviet-style psychiatric examination.”

Following this, Delta released the following statement, clearly not admitting any wrongdoing:

“We made a business decision to settle the matter rather than appeal a decision that we disagreed with. Delta’s fitness for duty testing process for pilots is in place to ensure safety and it works.”

Delta has lost this case, big time

Bottom line

Back in 2016, Delta labeled a pilot as unfit to fly, after she reported safety issues to the airline. A doctor who had a relationship with the airline was behind the diagnosis, though an independent panel of doctors had a different conclusion.

After a drawn out legal practice, the pilot has been reinstated and has received significant compensation. On top of that, the doctor who labeled her as bipolar has lost his medical license.

My gosh, this story really doesn’t paint Delta in a good light…

What do you make of this Delta whistleblower incident?

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Never Delta Guest

Never flying Delta ever.

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Doug Guest

What happened to the VP of Flight Operations that initiated the whole incident?

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Captain Douglas Walter Greene Guest

First Officer, Karlene Petitt’s case, highlighting Delta Airline’s workplace violence and retaliation is a common practice in the airline industry, that presents a Clear and Present Danger to the flying public as we know it. This is supported by the Dark Money controlled government regulatory agencies who are supposed to protect pilots (safety keepers of the sky), but instead they sustain airline corruption to create the “perfect compliant pilot,” by putting fear in pilots across the industry from enforcing airline safety and security. As mentioned in Marty Labut’s review, United Parcel Service (UPS) has been using EXTREME measures to commit 18 USC crimes, with impunity, to target myself, Captain Douglas Walter Greene and over 155 UPS pilots that we know of, who dared to enforce airline safety & security. This has created a UPS pilot workforce that is terrified to “Say Something, if They See Something.” With over 6000 pages of overwhelming evidence “Beyond Reasonable Doubt,” to include audio files, transcripts, and more, I have personally spent the last 10 years of my life and over a half million dollars simply trying to “Get My Day in Court” by a rigged system that is controlled by corporate Dark Money to sequester justice from overt acts of workplace violence & retaliation against the American Worker. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents prove that both First Officer, Karlene Petitt and I, both had our AIR21 Whistleblower cases unlawfully dismissed. First Officer, Karlene Petitt and I, had the same Department of Labor (DOL) Investigator, Paul McDevitt, who blatantly ignored the mandatory 8 elements of the DOL Office of Inspector General (OIG) to conduct a proper investigation. After appeal to an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), unlike First Officer, Karlene Petitt, my case was unlawfully dismissed, by the ALJ, Granting UPS Motion for Summary Judgement, despite THOUSANDS of Material Facts in Dispute. The FOIA documents show overwhelming fraud ignored by BOTH the DOL & the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), while aiding and abetting UPS to conceal countless 18 USC crimes. After filing an appeal to the Administrative Review Board (ARB), my appeal was tampered with and has been sitting on ice with no review since 2016, filed long before First Officer, Karlene Petitt’s case. This is the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the face of aviation safety and security in the United States of America. UPS blatantly committed coercion by forcing troubled pilots with DUI’s to write false statements, to include UPS overtly falsifying FAA records in violation their own business code of conduct that demands integrity and accuracy in records. UPS CEO, Carol Tome was provided with all the evidence detailing the 18 USC crimes committed, yet she has chosen to do nothing to right the wrong. This illicit corporate culture is the direct result of the fatal aircraft tragedies of UPS 6 in Dubai and UPS 1354 in Birmingham, AL, resulting in the tragic and preventable deaths of pilots, Captain Doug Lampe, First Officer Matthew Bell, Captain Cerea Beal, and First Officer Shanda Fanning. These horrific events were directly related to pilots afraid to “Say Something, when they Saw Something,” in fear of workplace of workplace violence and retaliation of discipline up to and including termination to end their careers. Many are quick to criticize those like First Officer, Karlene Petitt and myself, who have sacrificed themselves to be professional in doing what’s right to uphold airline safety and security, until it happens to them for “whatever” reason. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on an excellent article and review of Delta’s heinous crimes of workplace violence and retaliation against First Officer, Karlene Petitt. Please stand strong with me, Captain Douglas Walter Greene still fighting for JUSTICE, by providing an equal opportunity to be interviewed so as to highlight even more heinous crimes committed by UPS, who has spent over 6 million dollars to conceal their crimes from ever seeing the light of honest adjudication thus far suppressed by the UPS controlled DOL, FAA, and Federalist Society Dark Money Courts.

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Angie Guest

Justice was served and shameful airline!

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Martin Labut Guest

United Parce Service (UPS) management also retaliates and commits workplace violence against UPS pilots. UPS targets pilots' medical certificates but in a much more devious and repugnant manner than that of Delta. UPS coerces, forces or blackmails pilots who have FAA undisclosed or disclosed DUIs into writing false statements regarding UPS pilots who have addressed safety or ethical concerns. UPS knowingly has submitted false statements to at least 2 FAA AMEs for the AMEs to refer to when deciding whether or not a pilot has a medical condition that may affect their ability to safely perform their duties as a crewmember. Delta used management personnel to retaliate against First Officer Pettit. UPS uses management AND effectively forces UPS/IPA pilots to write false statements in order to send "problem" pilots to unwarranted medical exams/ fitness for duty exams to not only end their UPS careers but to ensure that pilot NEVER flies again for any airline. The retaliation tactics utilized by UPS to target and terminate Captain Douglas Greene who is a 22 year military veteran and 20 year UPS pilot make Delta's retaliation against First Officer Pettit look like child's play. UPS management culture of retaliation, workplace violence, dishonesty, bullying, and submission of false documents is a direct threat to the safety and security of the airline industry, the safety of the general public and the safety of UPS pilots. This culture of fear most likely contributed to the tragic loss of lives on UPS 6 and UPS 1354. UPSers are aware of certain retaliation if they call in fatigued or report safety and ethical issues at UPS.

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