The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ordered Southern Air to withdraw a lawsuit it filed against nine former employees and pay them more than $7.9 million in wages, damages, and legal fees. Southern Air filed a defamation lawsuit against the former employees in Connecticut Superior Court in May 2008 after some of the workers raised air carrier safety concerns with Southern Air, OSHA, and the Federal Aviation Administration. The workers, all former flight crew members, subsequently filed a whistleblower complaint with OSHA, which found the company’s lawsuit was filed in retaliation for the workers’ protected activities under the whistleblower provisions of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21).