Former Spirit Airlines Mechanic: I Was Fired After Complaining To FAA About Service Issues

A New Jersey man who had worked at Spirit Airlines for more than a decade claims he was fired last year after he and a group of his fellow aircraft mechanics filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration about allegedly sketchy service practices at the carrier.

The Press of Atlantic City has a report on the lawsuit, which was filed last month in the New Jersey Superior Court.

According to the plaintiff, he was one of nine Spirit mechanics to write the FAA in 2011, alerting the agency to allegations that the airline was, among other things, not providing its mechanics with the tools needed to properly service Spirit’s fleet of jets.

The plaintiff also claims that he contacted airline management about his supervisor, who he alleges “was signing inspection stickers in blank and giving them to mechanics to fill out, date, and use without him actually performing the inspections which he was signing off on.”

Spirit subsequently dismissed six of the nine mechanics who wrote to the FAA, claims the complaint.

The Press points out that the FAA did investigate the mechanics’ claims last year and found nothing to substantiate the allegations of bad record-keeping.

The former Spirit employee says that he initially complained to the company’s human resources department that management was favoring certain employees and retaliating against others. He says the company never investigated these claims, but that he was eventually moved to the night shift, in spite of his 12 years on the job.

He was ultimately let go in Jan. 2012 for improperly signing off on a service entry in an airplane maintenance logbook.

UPDATE: A rep for Spirit sent the following statement to Consumerist —

The safety of our customers is always our number one priority. The former employee who filed this claim was terminated for cause and his allegations are totally without merit. Spirit will vigorously defend this matter.

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