Alaska Airlines Puts Mechanic on Forced Leave

An Alaska Airlines mechanic who voiced concerns about the safety of the carrier’s maintenance procedures was placed on administrative leave by the company Friday morning.

A hand-delivered letter told John Young to turn in his company ID and stay off company property, effective immediately.

“When I read that, I figured that’s it. They’re going to fire me,” Young said.

The letter from Art Fitzpatrick, director of the airline’s Seattle maintenance facility, told Young he was being placed on paid leave “in the interest of investigating the concerns you have raised, and to ensure an orderly work environment.”

“This leave was not invoked to punish anyone,” said Lou Cancelmi, Alaska’s director of corporate communications. “Young’s comments have caused some consternation. We want to calm the atmosphere, focus on maintenance.”

“We fully expect him to be back at work next week,” Greg Witter, another company spokesman, said Friday afternoon.

Young called Witter’s comments great news. “I certainly don’t want to lose my job,” he said.

Young--whose on-the-record remarks about the airline were included in a Times story Monday and later aired on television--was told in Fitzpatrick’s letter that company press policy requires approval before any employee gives an interview.

Alaska’s regulations state: “Interviews of Alaska Airlines employees at all locations must be cleared through the appropriate department head and corporate communications.”

Young, who had neither sought nor received company approval before talking with The Times, said he had not been aware of the carrier’s policy until he read the letter.

In an interview last week, company officials described the policy as “informal.”

When several were asked about how Alaska’s press policy affects employees’ right to talk to the news media, Jack Evans, a company spokesman, replied: “Their own personal opinions about how the airline does things? That’s fine.”

Officials at Local 14 of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., representing Alaska’s nearly 900 mechanics, declined to comment on the company’s placing Young on leave, but said the union was investigating the safety concerns raised by him and other mechanics.

“Those members talking to the press are expressing their personal opinions, but they are not the views of AMFA and the membership as a whole,” the union said in a statement Thursday.

A mechanic who spoke anonymously, fearing possible retribution, said some co-workers were upset because Young and others voiced safety complaints outside the chain of command but they share his safety concerns.

“Guys are in fear for the operation,” the mechanic said. “If the FAA finds blatant operations violations and planes leaving [in unsafe condition], we are out of a job.”

The Times reported Monday that several Alaska mechanics had told the FBI and federal regulators that some Alaska jets had been returned to service despite concerns that further repairs might be necessary. Young was quoted as saying: “I know planes have gone out in unsafe condition.”

No accidents resulted from any of the incidents mentioned by mechanics, and none of the allegations involved the Alaska plane that crashed off the Ventura County coast in January, killing all 88 aboard.

Tom O’Grady, one of the airline’s top attorneys, said the company was “unaware of any incident in which a plane was returned to service in un-airworthy condition.”

Nonetheless, Young and two other mechanics said a plane was crippled by ice in 1996 after mechanics failed to de-ice it properly, and it had to make an emergency landing. Young and others also mentioned several additional incidents in which they thought maintenance had been inadequate.

The Times story was picked up by several media outlets, including television stations that interviewed Young on the air.

A source within the airline said Young’s television appearances “had upset his co-workers, and his being in the workplace at this time might be upsetting.”

Young was called in by the company Thursday and questioned about the incidents he had mentioned in The Times and on the air.

“I don’t want to make a bad situation worse,” he said Friday, speaking to the newspaper after receiving permission from the company. “I want to make it better.”

Concerns about the right of Alaska’s employees to speak out without fear of company retribution arose two months ago, when the airline told them in a memo to refer all inquiries from investigators to top company officials.

After an employee complained that the company was trying to interfere with the investigation, the firm issued a clarification. Officials said the memo was poorly drafted and assured employees that they were free to talk to federal agencies without prior clearance.

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Alaska Employee Placed on Leave After Commentsomments

This letter was sent to Alaska Airlines mechanic John Young after he was quoted in a Times story and subsequent television reports as raising concerns about the safety of the airline’s maintenance procedures. He was placed on paid administrative leave pending the company’s investigation of the concerns, and prohibited from further contact with news media without prior approval of the company.