Nevada to appeal order to rehire pilot

A fired state pilot will be rehired and given back pay while the Nevada Transportation Department appeals a hearing officer's order to take him back, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.

Agency spokesman Scott Magruder said Jim Richardson would be rehired pending the appeal, although he didn't know what position Richardson would get. Magruder added the department plans to hire a new chief pilot in April.

Richardson won his job back in a ruling last week by hearing officer Bill Kockenmeister, who decided Richardson had been improperly fired in April 2008 for violating a safety regulation.

State officials dismissed Richardson for not reinspecting the state's 10-seat Cessna Citation aircraft after a co-pilot let the plane's engines overrev on a flight to Las Vegas.

After his ouster, Richardson blew the whistle on alleged safety violations by his supervisor, former chief state pilot Gary Phillips. Phillips was later demoted.

Kockenmeister criticized the Transportation Department for not disciplining Phillips for letting his 14-year-old son fly the state jet, and for flying the aircraft with dangerously low fuel reserves " including once in 2007 with Gov. Jim Gibbons aboard.

"The substantial, reliable and probative evidence in this case clearly establishes that Mr. Phillips committed the ... safety violations," Kockenmeister wrote.

Phillips repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during Richardson's job hearing.

Robert Chisel, assistant director of administration for the Transportation Department, said he couldn't disclose why Phillips was demoted, adding that the agency has confidence in him. Chisel also said an internal probe concluded that the allegations against Phillips couldn't be proved.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor in Los Angeles said the federal agency was investigating Richardson's reports of Phillips' conduct.

The plane is one of two that the transportation agency owns and operates to fly the governor, state officials and transportation executives around the state.