N.J. Aviation Company Fired Pilot Who Reported Safety Concerns to FAA, Lawsuit Says
An airline pilot with decades of experience says she was fired from a New Jersey aviation company after she reported safety concerns to the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a lawsuit.
Pamela Mincey, of Gainesville, Florida, worked for Short Hills Aviation LLC, based in Morristown, for about a year before she was unlawfully terminated on Sept. 1, 2022, according to allegations contained in court documents.
“The termination of her employment was in retaliation for her multiple reports to company management and federal authorities of unsafe practices while carrying members of the public in its jet charter service,” states the suit, filed Aug. 31 in Superior Court of Morris County.
Representatives with Short Hills Aviation, a luxury airline company, did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Mincey, 67, has more than 25 years of flying experience, and worked for two decades as a commercial pilot who flew Boeing 747 aircrafts on international routes with no accidents or regulatory violations, according to the lawsuit
She “was trained to, and practiced, the highest standards of aviation safety and understood the requirements of federal aviation regulations as they pertained to flight safety,” the lawsuit says.
Throughout her employment with Short Hills Aviation, Mincey was the only woman pilot, the lawsuit notes.
Mincey’s troubles with the company began on Nov. 5, 2021, when she was assigned to fly second-in-command with a captain who told her not to touch the aircraft controls.
“I don’t allow co-pilots to fly my airplanes,” the captain allegedly told Mincey. “You will never fly my plane.”
The refusal to allow Mincey to participate in flying the aircraft was a violation of federal regulations, as pilots in a two-member crew “must be independently qualified to fly the aircraft,” the suit states.
Mincey later complained to a chief pilot about the incident, pointing out that it was unsafe to prohibit qualified pilots from manipulating the controls and making landings, the suit says.
However, no changes were made and Mincey was never allowed to fly while acting as second-in-command while flying with that pilot, the suit states.
On Jan. 7, 2022, Mincey wrote an email to the chief pilot and a supervising captain in which she “discussed specific concerns with (Short Hills Aviation’s) safety culture and made suggestions for improvement,” the suit states.
Her complaints included a captain she flew with to Mexico who missed an approach to the airport, flying off a prescribed route and allegedly “jeopardized the safety of the flight, the paying passengers, and the crew, although it did conclude in a safe landing,” the suit says.
From Jan. 8 through March 8, 2022, Mincey was paired with a captain who refused to use a company-issued iPad Mini designated as the primary onboard navigation system, the suit says.
Failure to use the device was a violation of “FAA operations specifications” and again jeopardized the safety of the flight, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit claims that on one occasion, the captain’s failure to use the device caused the crew to “lose situational awareness,” and that the captain falsely blamed Mincey in reports he made to company managers, the FAA, and in a report to NASA, the suit alleges.
Mincey says she then tried to set the record straight by reporting the captain’s “dishonest and erroneous” statements to both the chief pilot and in an interview with the FAA.
Short Hills Aviation’s president Dudzinski made the decision to terminate Mincey shortly after her FAA interview, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit alleges violations of New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act. Mincey’s lawers are demanding she be reinstated to her job, and compensated for lost pay, health benefits and insurance.
Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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