Tuesday, May 25, 1999
Jury to decide whether fired DHL whistle-blower made case
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — A federal jury is expected to begin deliberations today to determine whether a dispatcher was fired from DHL Airways Inc. more than two years ago for being a whistle-blower.
The jury will determine whether Charles “Larry” McGill receives unspecified damages in the civil suit that went to trial last week in U.S. District Court.
Mr. McGill, 53, of Cincinnati, has said he was fired from the cargo company in January 1997 because of his claims that the expanding airline was committing federal aviation violations.
The fact that DHL didn't have high-frequency radios for a September 1996 flight between Mexico City and Houston could have ended in tragedy, the retired Navy aviator has said.
The radios allow direct communication between dispatchers and flight crews.
For that flight, Mr. McGill tried to contact a DHL pilot to warn him of treacherous weather over the Gulf Coast. But, without the high-frequency radios, he could not reach the pilot.
Mr. McGill spent the next months complaining that federal aviation violations were being violated. He was ultimately fired.
Mr. McGill was fired because he secretly recorded a conversation with a supervisor — a direct violation of company rules, DHL attorney Linda Woeber has said.
She also has said Mr. McGill had become very unprofessional, prone to being very emotional and insistent on being right.
Ms. Woeber is expected to call one more witness before the jury begins deliberations.
Mr. McGill has insisted federal aviation regulations require direct dispatcher-pilot contact at all times.
For the Mexico City-Houston flight, the DHL plane was equipped with VHF — very high frequency — radios.
This equipment allows DHL dispatchers to have direct communication with flight crews as long as the planes are within about 160 miles of special antennae stationed throughout the nation. Mexico, though, does not have such antennae.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in an April 5 letter that DHL is not in compliance with federal regulations.
The agency has mandated that DHL install $200,000 worth of radio equipment to improve communications for its flights to Mexico.
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