Political Quotes

“I rise today to speak in opposition to the nomination of Stephen Dickson to be the next Administrator of the FAA. I have said that it is very important that in this day and age, when it comes to aviation, safety must always be our top priority. We considered Mr. Dickson's nomination, his record, and the ongoing case of a whistleblower retaliation, and given all of that, it is clear to me that he is not the right person for the safety culture we need today at the FAA. It is distressing to me that Mr. Dickson advanced out of committee on just a party-line vote. We have never had a partisan vote on an FAA nominee in the past, and I believe we should have found consensus on the nominee for the FAA given all the concerns the public has about flying safety. The reason why I oppose Mr. Dickson is from what I understood, after the hearing, from First Officer Karlene Petitt, who has a Ph.D. in aviation safety and is an experienced pilot over 40 years and happens to be one of my constituents. At a hearing, we basically understood that no one was holding Mr. Dickson accountable for actions that he took against her at Delta Airlines. Back in 2010, she was a pilot on an A330 flight. She had seen a crash of an A330 plane--tragically, an Air France plane in the Atlantic Ocean. She had also heard comments from those in the Delta executive team that if you have a concern about safety, say something. So she thought she was doing just that.…”