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NTSB Report Retaliation

Asked by: 1224 views
Aircraft Systems, General Aviation

There's a lot of story here so the tl;dr is this: Is there any law that protects a pilot from retaliation by their employer for making a good faith NTSB report under 49 CFR 830?

I was recently giving instruction when the rudder pedal under my student's right foot became disconnected from the flight control system. The pedal on my side still worked so I took the controls and landed with no issues.

As I read 830.5, the occurrence qualifies as a "flight control system malfunction or failure" so I called the NTSB. They had me send a couple of pictures and then released the plane to be repaired and returned to service.

My chief instructor pulled me into his office and says I should not have made the report and that someone at the NTSB called the flight school owner asking why we made such a report. The chief instructor said that the word "system" should be the key to indicate that if the system is still usable, no report is required. If that were the case, I would think that 830.5(a)(1) would simply read "Flight control system failure" and not use the word malfunction at all.

So I called the NTSB supervisor I had previously spoken with and explained that I'm a 670-hour CFI who has a lot to learn and asked what he thought about the report. He said that I had done exactly the right thing, ran a scenario about a possible future discovery of this reportable event that could cost me my certificates if I hadn't reported it, and volunteered to meet with my chief flight instructor about the matter.

Obviously, this causes me to think that the chief instructor's claim about the NTSB calling the owner was not truthful but I worry that saying anything more about it--or being in the situation again and making a report again--will get me fired as an instructor. Is there any law out there that prevents retaliation for good faith reports to the NTSB?

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2 Answers



  1. Mark Kolber on Jun 08, 2023

    Speak with an employment lawyer if you want an answer. Way too little information to even speculate.

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  2. Best Answer


    Jeff Baum on Jun 09, 2023

    The way I’ve approached times like these is, “It MY certificate not your’s. I will not risk my certificate.” I’ll loose a job before I’ll lose my certificates. I can always find another job.

    Yes, I have been terminated once. There were some shenanigans with regulations which I refused to go along with. I complied with the FARs and our Ops Specs, which the DO disliked. He demanded that I do things HIS way (violating several FARs) or I was headed for the highway. I refused and he fired me. A few weeks after I left the FAA conducted an intense inspection. They issued an Emergency Revocation of the operation’s 135 certificate, an Emergency grounding of all of the aircraft, an Emergency Revocation of all of the DO’s certificates and required all but one pilot (me) who have flown there within six months to receive a 44709 ride.

    I’ve been threatened with termination a few other times, and without being a jerk I basically said the above. They never followed through. Telling the management type that you will cheerfully contact the FAA and discuss the reasons for your termination usually ends this.

    I was asked during my initial large airline interview if anyone had tried to intimidate or coerce me into knowingly violating a regulation or flying in an unsafe situation and how I handled it. They were interested in the applicant’s willingness to “stick to their guns” when they believed that they were in the right. They wanted people whom are willing to stand up and do the right thing, rather than have a pilot who can be pressured to do something which they know is wrong/unsafe. I retired after 34 years there.

    Stay on the High Ground and do the right thing. If an employer is trying to intimidate you, it isn’t worth staying there. Eventually there will be something which brings on FAA scrutiny. Best to avoid those situations. There’s always another job out there.

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