Courtesy of NDOT

The state Department of Transportation continues to look into complaints by a former state pilot of safety lapses involving Nevada’s Cessna Citation, shown in 2006.

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Wed, Nov 19, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Carson City — Testimony by a former state pilot last week painted a disturbing portrait of the operation of the state’s jet, which flies elected officials and state workers on official business.

According to pilot Jim Richardson, who was fired by the Nevada Department of Transportation in August, three times in recent years the state plane almost ran out of fuel — once as it carried Gov. Jim Gibbons and, on another occasion, as the plane transported a homicide suspect back to Nevada.

Richardson said he also raised concerns with agency leadership about the use of interns as de-facto co-pilots, then-chief pilot Gary Phillips’ failure to properly maintain the plane and Phillips’ allowing his then-14-year-old son to train on the state jet, landing and taking off.

Richardson blamed Phillips, now the state’s only pilot of the 10-seat Cessna Citation, for the alleged occasions when the plane was left with as little as eight to 12 minutes of fuel. Planes are required to have at least 45 minutes of fuel left when they land, Richardson said.

Richardson claims he was fired because he blew the whistle on safety violations.

The Department of Transportation said it has investigated, and continues to investigate, claims of unsafe conditions and incidents.

“After investigating the allegation of low fuel, there was insufficient evidence that the plane was being flown with a dangerously low level of fuel,” department spokesman Scott Magruder said.

He said he could not address the other allegations because they involve personnel matters.

Phillips has been demoted from chief pilot to pilot, but Magruder said he was not allowed to say why.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor confirmed that an investigation is under way into a complaint filed against Phillips. He said he could not discuss details because the probe is ongoing.

“An allegation is just that, an allegation. We have not reached any conclusions in this case,” Gregor said.

Phillips did not respond to a message requesting comment.

Richardson said the Department of Transportation’s investigation was cursory and conducted by an employee with no aviation experience.

During a personnel hearing last week in which Richardson sought to get his job back, Phillips was asked about safety violations but repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right of protection against self-incrimination.

The Department of Transportation said Richardson was not fired in August for raising safety concerns. “Mr. Richardson was terminated for his own misconduct and not for reporting alleged safety violations of the other pilot,” according to the complaint.

Richardson was fired when he failed to report in a timely manner that an intern had damaged an engine by pushing the throttle too hard, according to Magruder.

Richardson said he waited a day to report the incident. He admitted it was a mistake, but said it was the first on his record.

The FAA gave him a written warning, the lightest formal punishment the agency hands out.

“The FAA gives me a warning and the department fires me?” Richardson said in an interview. “That doesn’t make sense.”

The personnel hearing last week was to address why Richardson was fired. But, according to a recording of the hearing provided by Richardson, Richardson used the forum to show that more serious violations by Phillips went lightly punished.

In the interview, Richardson said the state plane nearly ran out of fuel on Oct. 29, 2007, while transporting Gibbons back to Nevada from Southern California, where he was on a homeland security tour of a military base.

On a Jan. 31 flight from Henderson to Carson City with Transportation Director Susan Martinovich onboard, the plane also almost ran out of fuel, Richardson said.

The third incident happened in June 2006, when Phillips, Richardson and three Reno police officers flew to Texas to pick up Darren Mack, who was accused at the time of shooting a judge and killing his wife. He had been detained by authorities in Mexico the day before.

Richardson said he flew on the way down, and that the crew had to stop for fuel.

Phillips, he said, flew back without stopping to refuel.

“He elected to come back nonstop, basically,” he said.

Gibbons’ spokesman Ben Kieckhefer said the governor has full confidence in how the state’s plane is used, but added he didn’t think the governor was aware of the allegation that the plane was low on fuel when he was onboard.

“The governor flies on the state plane regularly and continues to do so,” Kieckhefer said. “As a former pilot, both commercially and militarily, I don’t think he’d put himself in a situation that he didn’t think was safe.”