peekay4
Just a couple of points, since the subject has been opened...
First, the ABX case was filed in federal district court in Ohio. Although efforts to locate the case report failed, even without reading it, if the court applied any State's law, it surely would have been Ohio law, not Nevada. The point is, the place of refusal to violate safety rules, as a public policy exception to the at-will doctrine, varies by State. As noted earlier, the forum isn't the place for briefing Nevada law, but I can say the result under Ohio law would not be controlling.
Second point, the facts of the ABX pilot employment termination (even disregarding the different State law) were quite distinguishable from the key fact here - smoke in the aircraft, and an emergency evacuation. While the pilot in the ABX case plainly did rely upon safety concerns to justify his exercise of authority, at least from the news reports surrounding the termination and the union's lawsuit, there is no indication that an emergent situation confronted the PIC.
There is a further technical point about whether a dismissal for failure to state a claim is jurisdictional - actually it is not - but by now, I'm entitled to at least a few "you get paid by the word" digs, I suppose (actually, also not so).