Nominee to lead FAA faces questions about tenure at Delta
The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into whether Delta Air Lines violated FAA rules about promoting safety at a time when President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency was in charge of Delta’s flight operations.
The FAA investigation grew out of allegations by a Delta pilot that the airline retaliated against her for raising safety concerns. The Associated Press obtained a copy of an FAA letter sent to the pilot’s attorney detailing the investigation. The FAA declined to comment on the probe.
Trump’s nominee, Stephen Dickson, is under growing criticism from Senate Democrats over his initial failure to disclose his involvement in the case of the whistleblowing pilot, who was grounded a few weeks after she raised safety issues to Dickson and other Delta executives.
Dickson authorized grounding the pilot for a psychiatric evaluation. Outside doctors lat- er cleared her, and she has since returned to flying at Delta.
Dickson testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in May, and the committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination Wednesday. The FAA has been without a permanent administrator since January 2018.
Republicans hold the majority on the committee and in the full Senate, and Dickson had initially looked like a cinch to be confirmed. Dickson’s failure to disclose his role in the whistleblower’s complaint, however, has delayed and raised uncertainty about his fate and emboldened Democrats.
On Friday, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, Maria Cantwell of Washington, announced she will vote against Dickson.
“Information brought to our committee in recent weeks calls into question the safety culture that existed under Mr. Dickson that allowed a safety whistleblower to be retaliated against,” Cantwell said in a statement. “The nominee’s lack of candor about the issue was also troubling.”
Another Democrat on the committee, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, has said Dickson’s failure to disclose the whistleblower case on a committee questionnaire was “deeply concerning and potentially disqualifying.”
White House spokesman Judson Deere responded Friday that Trump picked Dickson based on his experience overseeing flight operations at Delta.
“The White House has complete confidence in his nomination and expects him to be confirmed,” Deere said.