A commercial airline pilot who alleges his job was threatened because his name was on a secret terrorist "watch list" is being allowed to resume flying, according to a letter his lawyers released Tuesday. The pilot claims he was put on the list because he is Muslim.
The two-sentence letter from Colgan Air Inc. to the federal Transportation Security Administration confirmed that the Manassas, Virginia-based regional carrier was allowing Erich Scherfen to return to work.
It did not mention any watch list or the reason that the company suspended Scherfen in April.
Scherfen, a New Jersey native who converted to Islam in 1994, and his wife, a native of Pakistan who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1980, sued the federal government last month. They claim their names were placed on the list because of their Muslim faith, in violation of their constitutional rights.
Scherfen's lawyers filed papers Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to withdraw a related request for a court order to stop Scherfen's scheduled Oct. 1 termination. Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie has scheduled a Sept. 18 hearing on that request.
"The immediate harm to Erich is over," said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. "He's back at work."
Scherfen, 37, a Gulf War veteran, had worked for Colgan for about a year when the company told him he was a "positive match" on a list maintained by the TSA and could no longer work as a pilot, according to the lawsuit. Both he and his wife, who sells Islamic books and other media from their home in eastern Pennsylvania, have said they have no criminal records or ties to terrorists.
Mark A. Dombroff, the Colgan lawyer who wrote to the TSA, declined Tuesday to answer questions about federal watch lists or explain why the letter was written. He confirmed that Scherfen will be allowed to resume working as a pilot once his flying credentials are current, but said he did not know whether Scherfen is actually back in the cockpit.
Colgan Air operates as Continental Connection, United Express and US Airways Express. A spokeswoman for the airline did not respond to telephone or e-mail queries.
The Justice Department has declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a statement issued when the lawsuit was filed, it said the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, "for both national security and personal privacy reasons," does not confirm or deny the existence of any name on the watch lists it maintains.
