View 3-minute video above ⬆️ transcript below.
How Delta grounds a top pilot for flying too high
Meet First Officer Karlene Petitt—mother of three, grandmother of eight, author of 15 books, with two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in aviation safety. In a field where less than 5% of Delta pilots are female, she’s among the most accomplished pilots in the sky!
Delta’s Christmas gift
On Christmas Eve 2016, Karlene opens an envelope from Delta. Not a holiday bonus—a letter ending her career.
Months earlier, Delta grounds her, ordering a psychiatric exam by their hand-picked doctor—who today declares her “unfit to fly.”
Why discredit Petitt?
A year prior, Delta CEO urges employees to speak up on safety. Petitt follows orders.
Perfect timing! She’s writing her Ph.D. thesis on aviation safety.
So she presents a 43-page safety report to her supervisors, detailing pilot fatigue, inadequate training, falsified records, and near-catastrophes. Basic stuff you’d think an airline would want to fix.
Instead of thanking Karlene, her supervisor files a Section 15, alleging she’s mentally ill, referring her to Dr. David Altman. Delta pays Altman $74,000 for Petitt’s bogus bipolar diagnosis—barring her from flying forever.
Diagnosis: daring to excel
Altman’s absurd rationale? Karlene’s many achievements—flying full-time, earning multiple degrees, writing books, and raising three kids—are “well beyond what any woman I’ve ever met could do.”
She must be manic.
Under oath, he swears women can’t do this stuff. She’s definitey bipolar.
Delta grounds her.
Because, well, she’s just too capable, ethical, and amazing.
Don’t mess with Karlene
Petitt sues Delta—the world’s largest airline.
Section 15 allows an independent medical exam. so she challenge her diagnosis.
Petitt goes big, hiring nine doctors from Mayo’s Aerospace Medicine Department. They unanimously debunk Altman’s diagnosis.
“Evidence does not support any psychiatric diagnosis, but does support a corporate conspiracy to remove this pilot.”
Their report costs $3,300.
A neutral third doctor evaluates Petitt for $7,400 (just 10% of the Delta doc’s $74,000 diagnosis). He backs Mayo. Karlene’s cleared to work.
Whistleblower win!
Delta’s smear campaign collapses—Altman surrenders his license amid criminal charges for fraudulent psych exams on multiple pilots.
The judge rules Delta abused Section 15 to silence Karlene’s safety concerns, awarding her $500,000 for emotional distress and ordering Delta to post his decision at every pilot base worldwide—visible to all Delta’s 13,000+ pilots.
He reinstates Petitt at the highest pay grade of any Delta first officer.
Delta spends millions on appeals—and still loses.
Weaponized psychiatry to silence whistleblowers
After a six-and-a-half-year legal battle—the judge finds Delta guilty of weaponizing psychiatric fitness exams to force pilot compliance.
Meanwhile, Delta denies wrongdoing, promotes Petitt’s adversaries, and insists their “fitness for duty” process ensures safety.
But how can an airline be safe if pilots fear speaking up?
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Fired for being too awesome?
Ever heard of someone getting fired for being too awesome?
I have.
Ethical perfectionists often face retaliation from those habituated to the status quo.
Doctors who stand up for patient safety get the exact same treatment—rigged psych exams, falsified diagnoses. I know some doctors who died by suicide during their multi-year ordeals.
So Karlene is clearly amazing.
She survives her employer’s character assassination and is back in the cockpit, flying high with a smile.
Have you ever been fired for being too ethical? Are you a physician forced into a sham fitness-for-duty exam? I’d love to hear from you!
Pamela Wible, M.D., is a suicidologist who runs a free suicide helpline for doctors. She speaks widely on weaponized psychiatry and rigged physician fitness-for-duty exams. Contact Dr. Wible.
