| The terrorist attacks of September 11th have caused our nation to reexamine safety procedures of our airline industry. Our airplanes have been used as weapons of mass destruction and as tools to inflict insidious psychological terror throughout our nation. The aviation industry’s safety procedures have come under close scrutiny since that tragic day.
Ever since I came to Congress, I have played an active role in shaping our country’s transportation policies. During my first three terms, I served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I currently serve on the Appropriations Committee, and its subcommittee that oversees funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.
My passion for transportation safety intensified after a tragic airplane crash occurred on July 2,1994 that hit close to home. Many passengers on US Air Flight 1016 from Columbia to Charlotte on that fateful day were my constituents. Thirty-seven passengers died when the flight crashed during a thunderstorm on its approach to the Charlotte airport. I personally heard the anguished cries of the victims’ families. Once you have heard these cries, they haunt you. My response was to take decisive action.
In 1996, I introduced the Aviation Safety Protection Act that provided whistleblower protection for airline employees who reported unsafe practices by their employers that endanger the lives of the flying public. It took four years, and the cooperation of my colleague, Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), from the other side of the aisle to get the bill passed. The Aviation Safety Protection Act was signed into law two years ago as part of the Aviation Authorization Act of 2000 known as Air 21.
Today, my legislation is being used in ways I could have never envisioned. The Aviation Safety Protection Act has taken center stage in the case of alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid. An American Airlines dispatcher who handled Flight 63 en route from Paris to Miami filed a 12-page whistleblower complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging her supervisors didn’t want her to report the terrorist incident to the government or divert the aircraft to Boston.
The dispatcher, Julie Robichaux, heroically disobeyed her orders and got the FAA involved. She kept an open phone line with the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) and coordinated the flight’s landing in Boston with fighter jet escorts. Robichaux alleges authorities at American Airlines feared that if the flight were diverted the aircraft “would be remotely parked and it would be forever before we could get the plane out of there.”
Luckily with the protection this law provides, the dispatcher felt courageous enough to ignore her superiors’ orders and potentially saved the lives of all the passengers on Flight 63. The law worked precisely as intended, and became a source of strength at a critical time.
When I wrote this law, I never thought of the kind of terrorist attack we experienced last September 11th nor the unwitting role the airline industry would play in terrorist attacks on our soil. Today that vulnerability is a palpable reality. The Aviation Safety Protection Act is needed now more than ever to insure that even under unimaginable circumstances our airline employees have the tools and protection necessary to help prevent potential disasters.
The law has received a high-profile test case in the averted terrorism attack involving the alleged shoe-bomber, and I anticipate it will prove to have been an important ally in this instance. Although I hope that the whistleblower protection is not needed for airline employees in the future, I feel more secure that when my constituents board a plane today all airline personnel are working unimpeded to insure their safety.
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U.S. Congressman 
