The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has denied a petition for review filed by Corr Flight S., which does business as Nicholas Air, in a whistleblower case brought by former captain-in-training Colin DeBuse. The unpublished ruling, filed in September, leaves in place a Department of Labor outcome that awarded DeBuse relief after he reported safety violations during a flight as an observer in a company aircraft.
DeBuse reported that a captain engaged in numerous safety violations during an October 2019 flight. After he was terminated, he filed an OSHA whistleblower complaint that was initially dismissed but later upheld on appeal. Corr Flight challenged the Labour Department’s findings, but the Fifth Circuit found one independent basis for the order remained intact and declined to disturb the decision.
The dispute centred on protected activity under federal aviation whistleblower law and on the subsequent remedies ordered against the operator. Those remedies include back pay, interest and attorney’s fees. The court’s opinion is unpublished, limiting its precedential weight, but it resolves the petition in favour of the Department of Labor’s position.