Safety
OSHA Orders Air Methods To Reinstate Pilot
Pilot lost his job for refusing to fly an aircraft he deemed unsafe.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on January 8 ordered EMT operator Air Methods to rehire a pilot it terminated on Aug. 5, 2013, for failure to accept a trip in a helicopter the pilot considered unsafe. OSHA found that Air Methods violated the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21) when it fired the pilot from its Lucasville, Ohio station five days after the July 30, 2013, incident, in which the pilot refused a trip into mountainous terrain after he discovered during the preflight that the aircraft’s ELT was inoperative.