I worked at the Anchorage International Airport from 1992 to 2000. During this time I advocated that the airport should upgrade on aviation safety and security. On the back side of the airport there is a road that is not to far from the runways. The road signs were being shot out. If one was to look through the bullet holes in the signs one would see the airplanes landing and taking off, meaning these airplanes were down range of the firing of these guns. My job was to replace these road signs. I asked the airport police about patrolling the back side of the airport for the shooters to see if something could be done about it. They informed me that the solution was to replace the signs as they were shot up, not to stop the shooting of the signs. In disbelief I went to the airport management on this and to no avail my message was dead on arrival. I thought this situation was unacceptable and that something must be done about it. So I contacted the news and they did a story on it. Then I copied off the story and sent it to all airlines across the world that flew into the Anchorage International Airport. From there the airlines contacted the airport management and informed them that they were going to fly into and out of the Fairbanks International Airport and not to the Anchorage International Airport any more. The airport management put the airport police back on more patrols for the back side of the airport. The management had a meeting with me and I was picked out as an up start trouble maker.

When I was moved to the midnight shift my co-workers told me that our supervisor took drugs and smoked dope out on the runways during our shift. I asked them why they did not report it. They informed me that the supervisor was the personal friend of the management and if they reported the supervisor for taking drugs the management would retaliate. So, I reported it to a state legislator and the legislator got my supervisor drug tested. My supervisor soon did not work at the airport anymore. The management was getting very angry at my disruption at the airport.

One night on low visibility conditions with heavy ice fog I was sent out to sand the runways. Our airport has the runways set out like a T with a double top on the T. I was sanding the runways and was heading toward the first top of the T, going south on the runway toward the first east west runway. I missed the first east west runway because the lights were turned down to step 1 where I could not see them. The lights have steps 1-5 with 5 being the brightest. Since I did not see the first runway because the lights were turned way down to step 1, I went onto the second east west runway almost having a head on collision with a landing passenger airliner. Since I was noted as a trouble maker for reporting on aviation safety issues at the airport the other supervisor denied me permission to ask the FAA tower to turn up the lights out on the runways at night during low visibility conditions like I always use to do before going out on them. All of my co-workers had permission to ask the FAA tower to turn up the lights before being sent out on the runways at night during low visibility conditions except myself. I was told that the supervisor would do this for me before my being sent out to work on the runways in low visibility conditions. The night I was sent out where I made a incursion and almost had a head on collision with a landing passenger plane the lights were not turned up high enough to be able to see as previously agreed before my being sent out on to the runways. So, I went across the first runway before realizing it and made an incursion. I explained that all airfield maintenance employees must have permission to ask to have the lights turned up high enough to be able to see before being sent out onto the runways. The airport management refused this request and removed me from field maintenance and put me over to building maintenance.

While I was at my new job I started to check doors around the airport to see if they were secured. I found one that was not secured and anyone could just open it quickly, easily bypassing airport screening and go directly to the airplanes unchecked. I reported it to the chain of command. They chose not to do anything about it. They did not want to rock the boat with the heavy handed management and become a trouble maker like myself. So I reported the unsecured door to airport dispatch. Airport dispatch reported it to the airport management. The management had a full scale meeting on this. The meeting was not about why the door was not secured, but why was I in the area to know that the door was unsecured and why was I distributing airport dispatch with this information. It was a meeting on how to kill the messenger and not about the message. I almost got fired for reporting the unsecured door. I received a letter of discipline in my file for reporting the unsecured door.

In the mean time I was sending out letters for aviation safety to the state government officials, airlines, aviation safety associations, ect to see if we could have a rule stating that all airport maintenance employees could have permission to ask the FAA tower to turn up the lights out on the runways during low visibility conditions before being sent out to work on them. By this time the airport management had enough of me and fired me. The charge was for making false and misleading statements. When I asked what were the false and misleading statements that I made and who were the person or persons I gave these false and misleading statements to, I was told that the information was confidential and no one was allowed to know.

The union said to me on my firing that if one does not talk, then one will not get into trouble. If one talks, then one is on one's own. I went to 15 attorneys on this. They stated that I was 100% on the side of the law, but it would cost 50-60 thousand dollars to take the state to court. So, like the vast majority of people who work at Americas airports I could not come up with that kind of money while being unemployed, so I had to let it go. What it come down to is that local government airport maintenance employees have to turn the other way on aviation safety, security issues or take their chances of being fired for speaking out on them. This does not help the aviation industry to have these people silenced from speaking out on aviation safety, security issues because they are right there at America’s airport seeing these things that needs to be done. These people are not going to put their jobs on the line. What needs to be done is to include the local government airport maintenance employees in with the airline employees and their contractors to have the same federal whistle blower protection so that they too can speak out for aviation safety and security issues. See this FAA web page.

John Suter