United Airlines B-777 Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association

The Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association is a national grassroots aviation safety and security advocacy group, which serves our ‘special interests’, the millions who travel by commercial air, and those dedicated safety professionals who serve them each day…airline aircrew members, Federal Air Marshals, and Federal Aviation Administration employees. I currently serve as the national public spokesperson.

I allege that in 2002-2003, while serving as a United Airlines B-777 captain based in New York City, I attempted to report via appropriate legal communicative channels within my company glaring deficiencies in aviation safety and security to no avail.

Included in these reported issues was the fact that the promised cabin video cameras and cockpit secondary barrier protections by the government and our company were never installed. Additionally, in a two year span following 9/11, I had not enplaned a single federal air marshal on the 100 round-trip flights that I flew between New York and London.

Additionally, because United Airlines was in the midst of post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which disempowered my pilot union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), bargaining strength at the mercy of a federal bankruptcy judge, I alleged that critical aviation safety reports mandated by federal regulations were being stifled and/or stonewalled by company management and the Federal Aviation Administration Principle Operation Inspector assigned to United Airlines at the time.

I further allege that because of the severely diminished bargaining strength of ALPA, that United Airlines management engaged in a reckless scheduling of cockpit aircrew that was endangering the lives of passengers and aircrew onboard.

Because of the federal reports I filed concerning the above, I was removed from schedule as a B-777 captain without warrant, placed on sick list without ever having been examined by a medical professional, denied legal representation both from union attorneys or my own personal attorney, ushered into the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and medically grounded for life as a pilot after 35 years in naval and commercial aviation. My resume is included as the second affidavit at the bottom of this page of our website.

Because of remarks made to me by my union leadership at the time, I alleged that RICO laws might possibly have been violated, which afforded United Airlines management leverage at the bargaining table during bankruptcy. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently acknowledged to me that they are investigating a report I submitted in the fall of 2007 under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which somehow was ‘overlooked’ by this agency for over two years.

I further allege that the Office of Inspector General of the Departments of Transportation, Homeland Security, and Justice, as well as many congressional committee chairmen and others in congress have ignored my persistent plea for assistance in this matter, and continue to do so to this date.

Because I recognized that my case was not an isolated occurrence, I spearheaded a grassroots effort, which expanded out to include many other global aviation safety and security organizations through establishment of an expanding global email newsletter network, a blog and website, the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Blog Talk Radio Program, and employment of numerous other online communicative systems, including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, MySpace, etc. Our association is also currently affiliated with the largest whistleblower advocacy organizations in the world.

On June 17, 2009, because safety issues surrounding the Colgan Air 3407 crash in Buffalo, New York on February 12th were identical to those I had attempted to report in 2003, I petitioned Senator Dorgan’s committee to serve as a public witness for the hearing, but was denied this opportunity. In lieu of public testimony, I was only permitted to provide written testimony as part of public congressional record.

Included in our association are federal air marshal whistleblowers and we are currently working very closely with Gabe Bruno, Executive Director of the FAA Whistleblowers Alliance, Kate Hanni, Executive Director of FlyersRights.org, Kirsten Stevens, Executive Director of SafeSkies.ca, David Hutton, Executive Director of Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR), Captain Tristan Loraine, Co-Chair of Global Quality Air Cabin Executive (GCAQE), and Dr. Janet Parker, Executive Director of Medical Whistleblower.

The FAA Whistleblowers Alliance, Federal Air Marshals, and our association are also working closely with Tom Devine, the legal director for the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) on passage of the Whistleblower Enhancement Protection Act of 2009 with inclusion of the stronger language of HR 1507, which ensures jury trials/discovery phase for federal whistleblowers.

On Monday, December 28, 2009 I appeared as a guest of Brian Sullivan on Fox News ‘Your World’ to discuss my case and security frailties in the Northwest 253 near-disaster.

Captain Dan Hanley
001-678 463-4390
danielhanley@bellsouth.net