From an airline, what do you expect when one of their pilots points out some big safety issues? He/she should get a prize or something like that? But nah, in the Asia Pacific Airlines Pilot Whistleblower Lawsuit, we found out and got baffled that a cargo pilot was actually suspended because he told the Asia Pacific Airlines that there were some big safety issues. That’s kinda scary if you think about it for a sec. But since there are laws in place in the country to serve the justice, and that is pretty much happened in this case. Just keep on reading to know more about that.
The Airline at the Center of It All
We agree to the fact that Asia Pacific Airlines is not a well-known brand like the large passenger airlines. True! It is a cargo airline located in Guam and owned by Tan Holdings Corp. from Saipan. Like, they just transport cargo such as food, medicine, and mail among Hawaii, the small islands of Micronesia, and the U.S. mainland. Their fleet consists of a few Boeing 757 cargo aircraft. That’s pretty much it!
But the small scale isn’t the issue here actually, see, safety experts out there have been monitoring APA for a long time. And? What came out? Oh, in 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted their flights due to issues with pilot training. That wasn’t it, by April 2024, there were more safety issues piling up, you know, making it all even worse for the airline itself.
The Day It All Started
In 2021, Captain Brant Swigart was amongst the best pilots at APA. But the thing is, right away, he had a couple of things that scared him at first. He saw the use of fast patches on engines instead of real repairs. He also noticed that maintenance logs were signed off without the necessary checks. And from what investigators found later down the line, it looked like the company was more concerned with the planes’ being available for flights than with their safety and that’s pretty much scary to come to know as a passenger or even a pilot on board.
As we already told you, the situation kept on becoming worse, and that was the case in November 2021 when an engine of one of APA’s Boeing 757 randomly shut down. Swigart refused to fly it after that. He thought that issues with the engine weren’t properly solved. Repair crew, in his opinion, merely ticked a box in the log without actually looking inside or doing the full repair.
And just so you know, later the FAA also checked it out and agreed with the pilot. And you know what the prize for this was that the pilot got? He got suspended, that’s what!
The Long Investigation
Over those three years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) really dug in and worked hard. They reviewed the records, interviewed the eyewitnesses, and checked against FAA reports. And no doubt, the final verdict was loud and clear: APA let Swigart go because of his safety risk disclosures, not for any other reason. By warning against flying an unsafe aircraft, he was ensuring the safety of the people. Nothing wrong with that!
The Big Payback
In December 2024, the Department of Labor announced its verdict. APA was quite taken aback by the news. Like, they were obligated to remunerate Swigart in excess of $2 million. Among the sum were $419,267 pursuant to wages that were lost going back, eight years of future salary, $27,596 for loan costs, and $75,000 remunerating the stress caused to him. That’s it? Nah, actually, they even defrayed the expenses of his legal representation.
