POGO Reports: FAA Whistleblower Vindicated

Sep 29, 2010

Whistleblower Office Vindicates FAA Whistleblower, But Questions Remain On Hundreds Of Improperly Closed Cases

By Nick Schwellenbach, POGO

Excerpt:

“The federal Office of Special Counsel (OSC) yesterday announced that it substantiated the findings of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) whistleblower Robert Spahr.  Spahr, who is an aviation safety inspector, reported to the OSC that the FAA’s flight standards district office in Pittsburgh and the FAA Eastern Division Regional Office violated regulations by failing to take action against three entities regulated by the FAA.

CNN’s Allen Chenoff reports that “Erie Aviation, a repair station operator that services commercial airlines; C.J. Systems, which pilots helicopters for hospitals around the country; and Air Charter Service, an operator of private charter flights,” were the three entities FAA failed to take action against.  Enforcement actions should have been taken in response to mechanical deficiencies and false entries in aircraft logs, according to the OSC.

But questions still remain about OSC’s previous work with whistleblowers, including those at the FAA and Federal Air Marshal Service (the subject of a 2008 POGO report).  Under Scott Bloch, the former Special Counsel who pled guilty to lying to Congress, literally hundreds of whistleblowers’ cases were closed without investigation.”

Link to entire article:  http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2010/09/whistleblower-office-vindicates-faa-whistleblower-but-questions-remain-on-hundreds-of-improperly-clo.html

Boeing Whistleblower, Gerald Eastman, considers the last decade and our present efforts to deal with Boeing corporate and government corruption.

Boeing Whistleblower, Gerald Eastman reflects on the past decade and wonders about the direction being taken by the new one, taking on Boeing and government corruption and more.  Here is a short excerpt.  You may find the complete post at The Last Inspector,  http://eastmans.site.aplus.net/pblog/index.php

“Boeing chose to jump on the Bush anti-regulation and ignore enforcing regulations bandwagon.  And, Boeing got busy early in the decade with revolving door fraud, as in the case of hiring Druyun Quid Pro Quo for fixing the first tanker contract award in Boeing’s favor.  Such revolving door shenanigans continue as employees eagerly jump from government to Boeing and back to government again, each time performing more service to Boeing such as favors in the form of information, contacts and influence, “adjusting” federal regulations to better the advantage of the company or make such regulations less in the way of opportunities for more questionable business dealings.  Combined with Boeing lobbyists and campaign contributions it is a powerful cabal that works 365 days a year to gain taxpayers dollars.”