Safety advocate

A recent case involving an air traffic controller's dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration shows why whistleblowers need protection.

Peter Nesbitt, an air traffic controller with more than 20 years experience, warned that a takeoff and landing procedure at the Memphis, Tenn., airport had led to near midair collisions.

Mr. Nesbitt said that he was punished for sounding the alarm. In September, the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that investigates whistleblower complaints, informed Transportation Secretary Mary Peters that the FAA had not adequately addressed warnings from Mr. Nesbitt and other controllers that procedures at airports in Memphis and Newark, N.J., were dangerous.

The special counsel's letter said there was a "substantial likelihood" that conditions at the two airports "create a substantial and specific danger to public safety." The special counsel has asked the Transportation Department's inspector general to investigate the safety allegations, the Associated Press reports.

Mr. Nesbitt said that FAA managers retaliated against him after he wrote the National Transportation Safety Board, Congress and a NASA database about the possibility of collisions involving planes taking off and landing on runways with intersecting flight paths at the two airports. He was assigned to office work and ordered to receive remedial training.

The FAA has adopted new procedures at Memphis. On Dec. 4, the agency agreed to return Mr. Nesbitt to air traffic control duties in Austin, Texas, where he had worked before, and pay his relocation and legal expenses.

People who risk their career in the cause of public safety must be protected from retaliation.