By: Meyer Wolfsheim

Three decorated NYPD pilots say they were sidelined and denied advancement by the former head of the department’s Aviation Unit—retaliation and discrimination that jeopardized safety and put favored colleagues ahead of them, the New York Post reported.

Veteran fliers Joseph Medina, Vlad Ravich, and David Ebright filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court against ex–Aviation Unit commander Winston Faison and the city, seeking unspecified damages. The trio alleges they were punished after flagging safety lapses and that promotions and prime assignments were steered away from them in violation of law, the New York Post reported.

Medina, 39, an Army National Guardsman and experienced pilot with multiple advanced licenses, transferred into the unit in 2015 and made the promotion list to detective before deploying to the Middle East from 2021 to 2023. When he returned—fresh off training soldiers to fly Blackhawk helicopters—he learned he’d been removed from the promotion list and replaced by a less-experienced Black pilot, according to court filings cited by the New York Post. Medina says Faison also stripped him of instructor duties on the pretext that he “hadn’t instructed in a while,” the New York Post first reported. He has since left the NYPD for another agency.

Ravich, 40, alleges he was grounded after challenging what he called unsafe practices. The unit’s hangar is supposed to use “aviation red” lighting at night so pilots’ eyes are adapted before flight, consistent with FAA standards, the suit says. Faison, however, insisted on regular lighting to create the appearance of busier operations for visiting brass, according to the complaint. Ravich says that after he objected, he was shunted to desk duty, the New York Post reported.

Ebright, 44, joined the Aviation Unit in March 2024 after more than two decades flying privately and was assigned to the NYPD’s radiation-detection “spy plane” based at Islip Airport on Long Island. Within a week, he was told to report back to Floyd Bennett Field because a Black pilot would be taking his slot, he alleges. Ebright further claims Faison damaged a Bell 407 training helicopter during a July 4 hover lesson and failed to report it, destroying the aircraft’s tail rotor and creating the risk of a catastrophic failure on the next flight if the damage went unnoticed. “If the damage was not caught, a pilot could have crashed and died,” the complaint states, the New York Post reported. The married father of three says the incident “spooked” him and led to his decision to leave the unit.

The lawsuit also points to the promotion of Pilot Brian Worthington over Medina, despite a prior 2022 crash of a $20 million helicopter that allegedly caused $4 million in damage—another example of standards being bent for the well-connected, the plaintiffs claim, the New York Post first reported.

Faison was removed from his command in July and has since retired. His ouster followed complaints and an FAA probe that he allegedly tried to obstruct, including the training mishap that caused roughly $40,000 in damage.

“By lowering aviation standards and promoting pilots based on race instead of merit, the NYPD recklessly endangered the safety of its own officers,” plaintiffs’ attorney John Scola said. Medina, who is Hispanic, alleges racial and military-service discrimination; Ravich, who is Jewish and originally from Russia, alleges retaliation after raising safety concerns; and Ebright alleges he was displaced from a specialized assignment without cause.