The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has agreed to pay an aviation safety inspector who faced retaliation after raising concerns about unqualified flight safety inspectors.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said that the whistleblowing employee disclosed that flight inspectors were certifying pilots and conducting safety “check rides” even though they lacked the necessary formal training and certifications.

OSC reviews whistleblower allegations, and they said the FAA’s Office of Audit & Evaluation “substantiated the whistleblower’s allegations, calling into question the operational review of several aircraft, including the Boeing 737 MAX and the Gulfstream VII.”

The FAA agreed to pay the employee $90,000.

Boeing Co declined to comment. Gulfstream said the G500 and G600 were certified by the FAA in 2018 and 2019 and have flown over 5,000 hours since then. “We are confident we surpassed the requirements necessary to successfully certify the pilot training program for the G500 and G600,” a company spokeswoman said.

In September, OSC said the FAA appeared to have been “misleading in their portrayal of FAA employee training and competency” in providing Congress information about some safety inspectors who were involved in assessing training requirements for the Boeing 737 MAX.

The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after crashed and the certification process for the aircraft has been under scrutiny. The agency denied misleading Congress and said that the aviation safety inspectors who evaluated the 737 MAX were qualified to do so.

The FAA found that after disclosing the problem the whistleblower faced retaliation and felt like he had to take a new position in another city to escape the harassment. His managers also allegedly removed his duties and denied training requests, flight certifications and job training opportunities. During the investigation his then-manager retired so OSC did not seek disciplinary action.

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