Delta Air Lines tried to silence safety whistleblower Karlene Petitt once, and they lost. Now, “I am voicing the same safety concerns to [again to] Captain James Graham, who is now the CEO of Endeavor Airlines, and Delta is once again trying to silence me. This time with legal action of defamation against me. They are threatening to take me to court.”
So says the retired Delta pilot in her bombshell post titled “Delta’s Effort to Silence me” on Saturday. In it, Karlene reveals the airline’s demand letter and her responses to it after her social media posts about the Endeavor Air crash in Toronto got Delta’s hackles up. Read her post here.
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A small sample:
On February 19, 2025, you posted on X that the Captain “on this flight FAILED training as a @Delta FO & CEO Graham returned him to Endeavor as a [captain].”
Clarification: “Failure” in my experience includes when a pilot is offered to not take the checkride due to poor performance, and/or offered a deal because they believe he won’t pass. CEO Graham more than likely did not personally return him to Endeavor, but as the CEO he is fully responsible for that process.
Apparently, Karlene has impeccable first-hand sources who have revealed the goings-on behind the scenes at Delta. At issue seems to be the definition of “failing” training and how allegedly cutting corners and covering up a pilot’s history might contribute to accidents. It’s a hotly debated issue in the aviation community, to be sure. Delta CEO Ed Bastian went on national television to say the aircraft, which took off from Minneapolis and was operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, had an experienced crew on board who were trained for any condition.
But I’m told that across the board, airlines’ willingness to send out pilots who are not truly ready is an open secret. Pilot Cassaundra van den Heuvel, a whistleblower who once flew for Republic Airways, warned us about what training is like at regional carriers these days, of which Endeavor Air is one. You’ll find all sorts of recent airline incidents here.
Isn’t it in everyone’s interest to be transparent about training and safety? Maybe now they’ll have to be.
As Karlene points out in her post, “With a lawsuit, I can legally subpoena the CVR, FDR, depose both pilots, depose all Delta’s instructors, request names and records of all those who flowed up to Delta and were sent back, and can even request all training documents. This might be the only way there will be any transparency as to why this accident happened. Therefore, for those few who said they hoped I would get sued, this might be the only way for full transparency to improve aviation safety.”
Protect Yourself: Don’t make a move without reading this book
Karlene gets yelled at a lot on social media, accused of blaming pilots for everything and ruining their lives by suggesting human error is at play, but I have never seen her take the bait. Usually it’s male pilots flying off the handle, which makes me wonder as a passenger if they’re too emotional to be at the controls. Maybe it’s hormones, who knows.
Her new book, AIR21: Delta’s Debacle, shows she is all about protecting her fellow aviators—along with anyone who’s being abused at work and doesn’t know how to fight back. Buy it here. If you purchase it from her website, you could win a car!
Veteran aviation journalist Kathryn Creedy posted a glowing review here. Some snippets:
This book advises others pursuing legal action against their employers for retribution, weaponization of HIMS/mental health programs, gaslighting and intentional misrepresentation.
Air21: Delta's Debacle is a must read for anyone who wants to protect their rights and their career. Despite federal directives to educate employees as to their rights under the Air21 bill passed decades ago, airlines actively discourage employees from having this information so they can gaslight you, isolate you, and otherwise play mind games on you.
For readers of this newsletter, many of whom are flight attendants, I cannot stress enough how important it is to TAKE THE CORRECT STEPS FROM THE START. Before you say a word to anyone or file a report with anyone or, god forbid, believe you can trust human resources, do your research. HR is NOT your friend. The department exists specifically to protect the COMPANY. NOT YOU.
As Karlene explains in some of the jacket copy for her book:
Harassment impacts safety. In her book she explains how you can use this law to shift your gender complaint to safety, as the AIR21 law provides more protection than most gender complaints, if you work in the airline industry. But you can file both at the same time, as there are different standards for the claim. You will also learn that it's illegal to retaliate for reporting, intending to report, or testifying in an AIR21 case, therefore, she explains how to use this knowledge to create protected activity before you report.
Go get yourself a copy!
Chilling Testimony About Safety at Delta
This is testimony from the trial of Karlene Petitt v. Delta Air Lines.
Delta Captain Corbin Walters (Retired A330 Checkairman) Describes his first training at Delta (after merger) on the A330:
When asked... “And could you describe the training you received for the A330, how the training program was conducted?”
Corbin said, “It’s a little bit like being put through a toothpaste tube."
He also said, "The subject matter being difficult, it was made more difficult by the fact that when we went through training the emphasis was not on understanding the airplane as much as it was a rote procedures process, where you would rote memorize the processes and procedures, sequence of button pushing without, necessarily, fully understanding what it was you were doing or why.
“And that made it very difficult for all of us. And I think we all shared the sense that when we came out the other end of that pipe, that we were really ill-prepared to be turned loose out into the system. There just seemed to be a push to get us through, jump through the various hoops and get us through.”
"I remember being in the procedures trainer with my partner, a procedures trainer is like a simulator, but it doesn’t move, it’s got a lot of the same cockpit panels, some of them are functional and some are not, but it’s for establishing patterns, pattern work in the cockpit, and I remember sitting in there and one of the two of us, myself or my partner, said, as we were trying to work through a process, So, what does this do when I do this, or why am I doing this? And the instructor’s response was, Stop asking questions, be the monkey, hit the lever, get the banana."
“I have never been so uncomfortable in an airplane as I was in my first year as a captain on that machine." (A330).
Testimony of DELTA Captain Pat Harney: He's discussing an ongoing training issue with flaps at Delta...but identifies it as a rushing issue.
“For over seven years now we’ve had what the company classified as a 'flap problem.' When I got to the 37, it’s like, this is not a flap problem. I’ve been an instructor, I’ve written manuals, I’ve done briefings, and when you have a problem you identify the problem, you get together as a group, instructors and management, and you work through a solution.
“You train that, make aware to the pilots within a year, you know, three months to figure it out, three months to set up the program, six months to go ahead and train it, a year later you don’t have the problem, maybe a one-off here and there. We’re still having thousands of incidents of the flaps not being set. And I wrote the letter in regard to the systematic problem of rushing.
“And I said, right in there I said we are going to have an incident or accident, this is preventable. I’m going to get off my soapbox now and I’ll write you again after an incident or accident. A couple months later we had the accident, incident/accident, I’m not sure what the FAA did, down in San Jose, where the pilot ran into the tug.
“And then I wrote another letter, the third one, okay, now that we have this accident, are you going to consider this serious about the systematic problem we have with rushing? This could have been prevented.”
Judge Morris asks, “I want to know, can you tell me… you talk about this flap check not set, how was that significant to either takeoff or landing?”
Pat Harney replies, “Without the right flaps, you’re going to die!”
Look Who Else is Trying to Silence a Pilot: Southwest Airlines!
You know the tentpoles of the case:
Southwest Capt. Michael Haakgot naked and allegedly masturbated all over the flight deck, assaulting and battering his co-pilot, then-F.O. Christine Janning, in the process.
Southwest and its pilots’ union, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), allegedly colluded and grounded her, tried to make her look crazy with an attempted psych eval for reporting the utterly revolting and illegal thing their male pilot—who was CONVICTED in Federal court in relation to that incident—did to her. They allegedly retaliated against her, instead of immediately investigating and punishing the actual crazy one, arguably Michael Haak, because you have to be profoundly disturbed to do what he did while flying a bunch of paying customers across the country.
Court papers in Janning’s civil suit against Southwest, SWAPA and individuals also name other SWA pilots including Captains Mike Bleau, Michael Hawkes and David Newton.
And now, I can reveal that sources familiar with the case tell me that Southwest and SWAPA have tried to force Janning to sign a protective order that would prevent her from speaking out and disclosing further evidence in her case—something that, if she signed it, would make most, if not all, material in the case confidential. Any disputes over protected material would be considered before the court in closed sessions, whicheffectively silences Janning and allows SWA and SWAPA to keep all their alleged bad behavior under wraps in perpetuity.
This smells to me like a delay tactic and another attempt to intimidate, but I’m not a lawyer, so who knows. It’s clear Janning doesn’t intimidate easily. Why in the world would she ever sign this? When will these airlines learn that none of this would be happening if they’d just backed their female pilot from the start over the alleged male aggressor? Why is it so difficult for management to behave like decent human beings?
While protective orders aren’t particularly uncommon, they’re meant to protect trade secrets, not hide the multiple sex predators Southwest has harbored in its lifetime, nor are they there to silence victims of assault and harassment.
Court proceedings are public for a reason. As a judge ruled when Delta tried to continue silencing Karlene, public embarrassment is not a legitimate reason to label unpleasant court proceedings and filings as privileged or confidential.
And finally…
I came across this 3-minute video about an American Airlines pilot recently and wanted to share it. It was put together by a woman who, based on things she has written publicly on social media, I understand to be a pilot who had a traumatic experience with American Airlines F.O. Sten Molin before he killed hundreds of innocent people in one of the deadliest plane crashes in U.S. history—American Airlines Flight 587.
She also runs a Reddit group called Aviation Predatorswhere she brings attention to new and lesser-known cases, posting names and photos of predators in the industry, some of whom will eventually make an appearance on THE LANDING LIST (scroll past the Andrea Ratfield story) coming out before summer.
For context: Sten Molin was a fantasist and compulsive liar who used what we now call "the Top Gun story" to woo or groom young girls and women, pretending to be a former Navy fighter pilot (or Air Force, depending on who he was trying to impress at a given time). In reality he was a middling first officer and nepo baby who was laid off more than once by commuter airlines before his father, an Eastern Airlines captain, got his son an interview with American.
I’ve read and heard his living victims talk about how much they want to move on.
But history won’t let them. Every year, it seems, there’s a new podcast, crash analysis, YouTube video or documentary about 587, some of which flat-out call Molin “innocent.” All of them whitewash the damage he did to women he worked with or “tutored” by ignoring new information that’s one Google search away.
Molin groomed young girls and left traumatized living victims in his wake along with those his panicked piloting killed. And American Airlines protected him, just like they allegedly did with John Sigsbee Nelson, an FO who was known to drink on duty, according to court papers. Ask American if they ever investigated Nelson or Molin—they never said they did, based on the available information.
In this video you will see the the PF Flight 587 in Australia performing aerobatics, an eerie precursor to his heavy hand on the rudder that brought down a commercial airliner and killed hundreds of people while hopped up on powerful stimulants ephedrine and pseudoephedrine (it's all in the NTSB report).
It doesn’t feel like anything’s changed since 2001, and that’s a depressing thought. But let’s hold onto this: There are people putting themselves out there to change the system from within, and they’re not giving up. Let’s support them as much as we can by sharing these stories and elevating their voices.
Until next time…
xSara
About me
I’m an award-winning journalist and bestselling author with decades of international experience writing for magazines and newspapers including People, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the Sunday Times Magazine (UK), Glamour, Shape, Epicurious.com, and more.
My crime reporting includes the most high-profile cases of the past decades. I’ve been sent to Italy to report on the Amanda Knox case, Portugal to cover Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, London to cover the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, L.A. for the death of Michael Jackson, and Sandy Hook, Conn. to cover the horrific school shooting, to name a few.
I was the first-ever recipient of the Jane Cunningham Croly Award for Excellence in Journalism Covering Issues of Concern to Women from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Winners after me included Marianne Pearl, and judges were legends in journalism like Judy Woodruff. I contributed to the feminist anthology Letters of Intent (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1999) alongside such icons as Gloria Steinem, Ntozake Shange and Judy Blume, receiving a review from the New York Times. I am the author of a total of 13 fiction and nonfiction books, some of them under a pen name.
THE LANDING is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
MC, Yes, it's the same playbook and judging from its cavalier attitude toward training and safety, it considers accidents a cost of doing business. Did the pilot actually fail or avoid the fail by returning to Endeavor. I'm wondering if airlines are playing with the principle of the pilot records database. I don't know the minutae around reporting to the database. Regardless, it certainly is thumbing its nose at the NTSB.
Airlines all operate from the SAME playbook! The silencing of whistleblowers, the coverup of incompetence, deflecting the blame, protecting their good name and their shareholders’ profits all at the cost of safety. Clearly Delta aren’t interested in having an open and honest conversation about what went wrong here. You can’t pair a very green FO, with a Captain who has a record of failing checkrides and not expect disaster. It saves Delta training costs but they gamble with people’s lives. That plane was belly flopped onto the ground, and it is a miracle no one was killed. There was no attempt to flare at all! That is the sort of error someone obtaining a private pilot’s license makes, not an experienced commercial airline pilot. Although this is very early stages and we really don’t have the full story here.
Delta will blame weather, they will blame the pilots themselves but they will never blame their systems.
This is the same thing that happened after Flight 587. Anyone with a bad word to say about Sten Molin or American’s knowledge of his long history of predation and poor piloting, and their failure to act, was muzzled. You don’t just wake up one day and decide to use the rudder in an overly aggressive manner to counter jet wash. That was a habit. Molin was a problem American Airlines were aware of and they failed to act.
It is horrifying watching footage of Molin doing a stairmaster workout on the rudder of a small aerobatics plane, knowing these same manoeuvres took down Flight 587. And of course Molin with his giant ego needed to film himself showboating for posterity. And we know he was showboating to impress a minor which is even more horrifying.
Currently we know of one predator with an alcohol problem working for a commuter airline: Monte Wedl. We also know the training at commuter airlines is poor. I really don’t know what else to say except they never learn.
MC, Yes, it's the same playbook and judging from its cavalier attitude toward training and safety, it considers accidents a cost of doing business. Did the pilot actually fail or avoid the fail by returning to Endeavor. I'm wondering if airlines are playing with the principle of the pilot records database. I don't know the minutae around reporting to the database. Regardless, it certainly is thumbing its nose at the NTSB.
Airlines all operate from the SAME playbook! The silencing of whistleblowers, the coverup of incompetence, deflecting the blame, protecting their good name and their shareholders’ profits all at the cost of safety. Clearly Delta aren’t interested in having an open and honest conversation about what went wrong here. You can’t pair a very green FO, with a Captain who has a record of failing checkrides and not expect disaster. It saves Delta training costs but they gamble with people’s lives. That plane was belly flopped onto the ground, and it is a miracle no one was killed. There was no attempt to flare at all! That is the sort of error someone obtaining a private pilot’s license makes, not an experienced commercial airline pilot. Although this is very early stages and we really don’t have the full story here.
Delta will blame weather, they will blame the pilots themselves but they will never blame their systems.
This is the same thing that happened after Flight 587. Anyone with a bad word to say about Sten Molin or American’s knowledge of his long history of predation and poor piloting, and their failure to act, was muzzled. You don’t just wake up one day and decide to use the rudder in an overly aggressive manner to counter jet wash. That was a habit. Molin was a problem American Airlines were aware of and they failed to act.
It is horrifying watching footage of Molin doing a stairmaster workout on the rudder of a small aerobatics plane, knowing these same manoeuvres took down Flight 587. And of course Molin with his giant ego needed to film himself showboating for posterity. And we know he was showboating to impress a minor which is even more horrifying.
Currently we know of one predator with an alcohol problem working for a commuter airline: Monte Wedl. We also know the training at commuter airlines is poor. I really don’t know what else to say except they never learn.