Some startling allegations under the False Claims Act are being made by FAA whistleblowers.

Five air traffic controllers are exposing the dangers of flying, which include a high risk of planes colliding or having accidents.

The Office of Special Counsel recently announced that five air traffic controllers in the Detroit area were justified in blowing the whistle on public safety risks from the automated introduction of multiple, sometimes-conflicting flight plans.

In a letter to President Barack Obama and congressional lawmakers, Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said the Transportation Department had substantiated the allegations that “FAA employees engaged in conduct that constitutes gross mismanagement and a substantial and specific danger to public safety by failing to address frequent and systemic problems with computer-based systems designed to automate the filing and amending of flight plans and delivery of departure clearances.”

The concerns centered on the FAA’s failure to adequately address the safety risks associated with multiple aircraft flight plans, which can provide conflicting information to controllers and flight crews.

Such conflicting plans occur when pilots, air traffic control centers, and dispatch centers make revisions to flight plans to change elements such as departure times, altitude, flight speed, and other details.

According to FAA, “when multiple flight plans are filed for the same flight, there is the potential that a controller can clear the flight for departure based upon a flight plan that is different than the one most recently filed by the operator, which could result in the crew flying a route not anticipated or planned for by the” air traffic controller. Such conflicts can lead to the risk of collision or accidents.

Among other things, the investigation revealed that FAA does not have statutory requirements or enforcement mechanisms to ensure flight plans are filed using established protocols, nor does its system automatically identify multiple flight plans and notify the controller.

The FAA also found that some airline dispatchers are not following proper protocols for entering new data on flight plans, and that some senior officials “either were not aware of, or did not perceive the significance of the problem,” according to the FAA investigation.

“The whistleblowers in Detroit deserve our deep gratitude,” Lerner said in a statement. “While more work needs to be done, their actions reignited efforts to address the problems.”

False Claims Act Explained

The False Claims Act is a federal law that imposes liability on individuals and companies who defraud the government.

This law contains a “qui tam” provision that allows individuals who have knowledge that a corporation or organization is defrauding the government to “blow the whistle” on the illegal activity.

The person who files a qui tam lawsuit is often referred to as the “relator” or “whistleblower.”

Qui tam lawsuits are a type of civil lawsuit whistleblowers bring under the False Claims Act, a law that rewards whistleblowers if their qui tam lawsuit recover funds for the government.

Qui tam lawsuits are a powerful way for whistleblowers to help the government stop many kinds of fraud including:

• Medicare/Medicaid Fraud
• Pharmaceutical Company Fraud
• Department of Defense Fraud
• Government Contractor Fraud

The False Claims Act rewards whistleblowers whose qui tam lawsuits recover government funds and provides job protection to whistleblowers because of the professional and personal risks they take to expose and stop fraud against the government – fraud that can endanger the lives of many individuals.