BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, DC 

_________________________________________ 

 ) 

Application of ) 

 ) Docket No. OST-2013-0204 

NORWEGIAN AIR INTERNATIONAL ) 

LIMITED ) 

 ) 

for an exemption under 49 U.S.C. § 40109 ) 

and a foreign air carrier permit pursuant to ) 

49 U.S.C. § 41301 (US-EU Open Skies) ) 

_________________________________________ ) 

 

I provide additional information to the Department of Transport’s notice, and in reply 

to, practically, identical correspondence from a few contract pilots (all given a B787 

type-rating and 3-year renewable contract to fly the B787 by NAI), purporting to 

represent an entire cadre supporting the NAI application. These pilots attest that NAI 

“Complies with all local laws” and safety concerns to be “false and groundless”. 

Neither Norwegian nor its partner agency, ARPI Aviation Norway, complies with all 

local laws. Moreover, there is no obligation for Norwegian to comply with local 

employment law due to the fact they are not the “employer” of their contract crew 

members. Item 4 of my declaration submitted August 18 (OST-2013-0204-0142): 

4. I was provided with two contracts. Each contract contained the specific clause 

that the crew member has no claim he is or was an employee of the lessee 

airline (the Norwegian Airline Group). 

I refer to attachment A 

Norwegian’s Chief Pilot letter stating: 

“..... Engaged as Commander in Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA [also NLH], employed 

by ARPI Aviation.......” 

“For further information we refer to ARPI Aviation as Mr. Colman’s recent 

employer” 

The letter not only confirms Norwegian’s indemnity of liability as the employer, but 

also their continued punitive action, in refusing to provide confirmation I passed all 

exams, tests and checks given by Norwegian and that no disciplinary action or 

investigation was ever taken against me by Norwegian. 

I refer to attachment B 

UK Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate email: 

“ the legislation in Great Britain does not apply as the agency [ARPI] is not based in 

Great Britain” 

1 
Contract crew members operating NAI B787’s from Great Britain’s, London Gatwick 

base are employed via a Singapore contracting agency. Therefore, as implied above, 

Singapore legislation applies. Norwegian may wish to explain how it intends, if at all, 

to apply Singapore law to contract crewmembers operating from London Gatwick, on 

transatlantic flights and on arrival in the USA. 

The pilots supporting NAI state they would not compromise safety even though 

Norwegian circumvents their legal protection via the use of employment agencies. 

However, those pilots do not, and cannot, speak on behalf of all other contracted crew 

members, nor foresee the reporting, or not, by any other crew member fearful of any 

retaliatory action by Norwegian. 

I refer to attachment C. 

European Directive 2003/42/EC – Article 8 Protection of Information 

4. In accordance with the procedures defined in their national laws and practices, 

Member States shall ensure that employees who report incidents of which they may 

have knowledge are not subject to any prejudice by their employer

I refer to attachment D. 

Irish Aviation Authority IAA – Legislation and Regulatory Framework 

S.I. 285 of 2007 gives effect to EC Directive 2003/42/EC on occurrence reporting in 

civil aviation. The S.I. appoints the IAA as the ‘competent authority' for Ireland. The 

S.I. outlines the requirements for voluntary and mandatory reporting. It also details 

that a reporter shall be protected from any discriminatory action by their employer. 

Note: the use of the legal definitions “employees” and “employer” 

I refer to items 11-12 of my declaration submitted August 18 (OST-2013-0204-0142): 

11. Following my safety/operational discrepancy reports, the attitude of 

Norwegian’s management toward me became hostile. I cataloged the punitive 

and discriminatory actions taken against me and reported them to the Chief 

Pilot on November 30, 2012. The Chief Pilot did not reply. On December 20, 

2012, I did hear from the Director of Flight Operations (DFO), who replied, “I 

am sorry to hear that you have experienced punitive actions against you.”

12. On December 31, 2012, Norwegian terminated my contract without giving any 

reason. (ARPI Aviation Norway’s notice to me stated: “Based on the decision 

of our client” - Norwegian). 

As further evidenced above, Norwegian’s abhorrent business model provides its 

indemnity as the “employer” and proficiently circumvents legislation designed to 

protect both persons reporting safety concerns and “employees” who may be 

wrongfully terminated by their “employer”. 

I respectfully request the Department of Transport deny forthwith any exemption and 

permit to the Norwegian Airline Group (NAI). 

 Respectfully submitted: 

 

__________________________ ____________________________ 

 

Captain Stephen Colman 
noirwegian 

Date 5th of August 2013 

To whom it may concern, 

We hereby confirm that Mr. S. Colman (address unknown) has been engaged as Commander in 

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, employed by Arpi Aviation, in the period from May 2"' 2012 to 31st 

December 2012. 

Aircraft flown: B737-800. 

For further information, we refer to Arpi Aviation as Mr. S. Colman's recent employer. 

ARPI Aviation Norway 

Radmann Halmrastvei 12 

1337 Sandvika, Norway 

Phone: (+47)67568825 

Sincerely, 

Jan H. Christoffersen 

Chief pilot B737 /Sjefsflyger • Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA 

Oksen0yveien 3 • P.0 Box 115 • 1330 Fornebu •Norway 

Mobile +47 94 18 51 72 Office +47 67 59 30 48 jan.christoffersen@norwegian.no 

norwegia(.~ 

Chief Pilot Administration 

If a Member State designates more than one body or entity, it

shall designate one of these as point of contact for the

exchange of information mentioned in Article 6(1).

2. The competent authorities shall store the reports collected

in their databases.

3. Accidents and serious incidents shall also be stored in

these databases.

Article 6

Exchange of information

1. Member States shall participate in an exchange of information by making all relevant safety-related information stored

in the databases mentioned in Article 5(2) available to the

competent authorities of the other Member States and the

Commission.

The databases shall be compatible with the software described

in paragraph 3.

2. The competent authority designated in accordance with

Article 5(1) receiving an occurrence report shall enter it into

the databases and notify, whenever necessary, the competent

authority of the Member State where the occurrence took

place, where the aircraft is registered, where the aircraft is

manufactured and/or where the operator is certificated.

3. The Commission shall develop specific software for the

purpose of this Directive. In so doing, it shall take into account

the need for compatibility with existing softwares in the

Member States. The competent authorities may use this software for running their own databases.

4. The Commission shall take appropriate measures to facilitate the exchange of information mentioned in paragraph 1 in

accordance with the procedure set out in Article 10(2).

Article 7

Dissemination of information

1. Any entity entrusted with regulating civil aviation safety

or with investigating civil aviation accidents and incidents

within the Community shall have access to information on

occurrences collected and exchanged in accordance with Articles 5 and 6 to enable it to draw the safety lessons from the

reported occurrences.

2. Without prejudice to the public's right of access to the

Commission's documents as laid down in Regulation (EC) No

1049/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council of 30

May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,

Council and Commission documents (1

), the Commission shall

adopt on its own initiative and, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10(2), measures for the dissemination to interested parties of the information referred to in paragraph 1 and the associated conditions. These measures, which

can be general or individual, shall be based on the need:

— to provide persons and organisations with the information

they need to improve civil aviation safety,

— to limit the dissemination of information to what is strictly

required for the purpose of its users, in order to ensure

appropriate confidentiality of that information.

The decision to disseminate information under this paragraph

shall be limited to what is strictly required for the purpose of

its user, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 8.

3. Member States may publish at least annually a safety

review containing information on the types of occurrences

collected by their national mandatory occurrence-reporting

system to inform the public of the level of safety in civil aviation. Member States may also publish disidentified reports.

Article 8

Protection of information

1. Member States shall, according to their national legislation, take necessary measures to ensure appropriate confidentiality of the information received by them pursuant to Articles

6(1) and 7(1). They shall use this information solely for the

objective of this Directive.

2. Regardless of the type or classification of occurrence and

accident or serious incident, names or addresses of individual

persons shall never be recorded on the database mentioned in

Article 5(2).

3. Without prejudice to the applicable rules of penal law,

Member States shall refrain from instituting proceedings in

respect of unpremeditated or inadvertent infringements of the

law which come to their attention only because they have been

reported under the national mandatory occurrence-reporting

scheme, except in cases of gross negligence.

4. In accordance with the procedures defined in their

national laws and practices, Member States shall ensure that

employees who report incidents of which they may have

knowledge are not subjected to any prejudice by their

employer.

5. This Article shall apply without prejudice to national

rules related to access to information by judicial authorities.

Article 9

Voluntary reporting

1. In addition to the system of mandatory reporting established under Articles 4 and 5, Member States may designate

one or more bodies or entities to put in place a system of

voluntary reporting to collect and analyse information on

observed deficiencies in aviation which are not required to be

reported under the system of mandatory reporting, but which

are perceived by the reporter as an actual or potential hazard.

2. If a Member State chooses to put in place a system of

voluntary reporting, it shall establish the conditions for the disidentification, by the one or more bodies or entities that it has

designated under paragraph 1, of voluntary reports presented

under such system.

4.7.2003 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 167/25

(

1

) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.

re not subjected to any prejudice by their

employer.

In accordance with the procedures defined in their p

national laws and practices, Member States shall ensure that

employees who report incidents of which they may have p y p yy

knowledge ar

Article 8

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I certify that I have, on this 27 day of August, 2014, served the foregoing document on 

the persons identified below by causing a copy to be sent by electronic mail: 

Reese.Davidson@dot.gov; steve.morrissey@united.com; Thomas.bolling@united.com; 

dan.weiss@united.com; hershel.kamen@united.com; sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com; 

chris.walker@delta.com; Andrea.Newman@delta.com; mlbenge@zsrlaw.com; 

rpommer@atlasair.com; russell.bailey@alpa.org; david.semanchik@alpa.org; 

jonathan.cohen@alpa.org; robert.wirick@aa.com; francis.heil@aa.com; 

michael.wascom@aa.com; howard.kass@aa.com; jesse.elliot@faa.gov; 

douglas.schwab@faa.gov; nicholas.tsokris@faa.gov; john.y.chen@faa.gov; 

anita.mosner@hklaw.com; jennifer.nowak@hklaw.com; nssparks@fedex.com; 

gbleopard@fedex.com; pvs@eurocockpit.be cc@eurocockpit.be 

romanow@pillsburylaw.com; jennifer.trock@pillsburylaw.com; 

peter.nelson@pillsburylaw.com; Melinda.hernandez@pillsbury.com; 

dberg@airlines.org; jcasey@airlines.org; kglatz@airlines.org; 

CBethke@airlines.org; edw@ttd.org; ejames@jamhoff.com; 

info@airlineinfo.com; clytle@portoakland.com; kgeorge@broward.org; 

mrichardson@swapa.org; sshur@traveltech.org; michael.whitaker@faa.gov; 

ottar.ostnes@sd.dep.no; david.batchelor@sesarju.eu; felix.leinemann@eeas.europa.eu; 

matthew.baldwin@ec.europa.eu; john.hanlon@elfaa.com; dhainbach@ggh-airlaw.com; 

Athar.HusainKhan@aea.be; 

___________________________ 

Captain Steve Colman