A veteran Australian aircraft engineer has been awarded AU$40,000 (US$28,044) in compensation after being sacked following a 17-minute delay to a Singapore Airlines flight that he was said to have caused by powering down the aircraft to clear fault messages. The man had done so in agreement with the pilots of the flight in question, but the carrier argued that his actions were a breach of protocol.

The man’s employer was Heston MRO, which provides maintenance to carriers such as Singapore Airlines. Heston investigated the matter and sided with the engineer, but he was later sacked after Singapore Airlines rejected the findings of the first investigation and demanded another. A tribunal ultimately decreed that he would not have to be reinstated, with his work at another airline also playing a role.

Stood Down After A 17-Minute Delay

Credit: Shutterstock

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, last November, Singapore Airlines contacted Heston MRO to withdraw the man’s permit as a result of what it called “mishandling incidents.” At the heart of the carrier’s qualms with the engineer was an instance whereby he had powered down a Singapore Airlines aircraft and powered it back up again in order to clear several fault messages ahead of a flight.

The pilots of the flight agreed to this procedure, which solved the issues that the diagnostic messages had been highlighting. However, Singapore Airlines expressed its dissatisfaction at the incident, arguing that the engineer had breached protocol and acted on instinct. Though the incident only delayed the flight by 17 minutes, Singapore Airlines argued that it had resulted in “customer dissatisfaction.”

Having contacted Heston about the matter, the MRO firm launched an internal investigation into the incident, and found that the man had not violated protocol. This supported the engineer’s claim that the reboot was a “normal procedure.” However, Singapore Airlines was unwilling to let the matter go, and demanded that Heston review the report due to the company’s investigation being “not an objective one.”

Credit: Shutterstock

Heston subsequently reviewed the investigation at the request of Singapore Airlines, with a newly hired Head of Quality & Safety taking the lead on this process. This procedure resulted in a rather different outcome, with the engineer instead being subsequently judged to have committed a “reckless violation.” This led to his dismissal, although he was not told about the second report and its new findings.

The man had worked in the industry for 25 years, and was employed by Heston from May 2023 to December 2025. A Fair Work Tribunal has now decreed that, despite the shortcomings of the review, Heston does not have to reinstate him. This is because he had also been working extra shifts at Virgin Australia on a casual basis, which the commission said had damaged the man’s relationship with Heston.

However, the Tribunal did order Heston MRO to pay the man AU$40,000 in compensation, due, in part, to the company’s inability to notify him of the reasons for his dismissal and give him the chance to respond. On this front, Clear Employment Relations’ Head of Advisory Service, Akile Numan, explained that “even in a safety-critical industry, safety concerns do not displace procedural fairness” for workers.

Australia Is An Important Destination For Singapore Airlines

Credit: Great Circle Map

Some interesting background to this story is the fact that Singapore Airlines’ presence in Australia is, by most metrics, huge. Indeed, data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that it currently flies to seven cities in the nation. Of these, Melbourne (MEL) is the most popular, with five flights a day from Singapore (SIN): three with the Airbus A350, one with the A380, and one with the Boeing 777.

Brisbane (BNE), Perth (PER), and Sydney (SYD) aren’t far behind, with each served four times a day. All of Brisbane’s flights use the A350, while capacity is split between the A350 and 787 in Perth and the A350, A380, and 777 in Sydney. Lower frequencies can be found in Adelaide (ten flights a week with the 787), Darwin (daily flights with the 737 MAX), and Cairns (five flights a week with the A350).