The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is ordering AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines Co., to reinstate a former pilot who was fired after reporting multiple mechanical problems.

OSHA is also requiring that AirTran Airways pays the pilot more than $1 million in back wages, interest and compensatory damages. After an investigation by OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program, the agency found reason to believe the pilot's firing was in retaliation, which violates the whistleblower provision of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, known as AIR21.

"Airline workers must be free to raise safety and security concerns, and companies that diminish those rights through intimidation or retaliation must be held accountable," says OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. "Airline safety is of vital importance, not only to the workers, but to the millions of Americans who use our airways."