A federal appeals court has reinstated a whistleblower’s claim that he was unjustly fired by United Airlines after he complained repeatedly about the company failing to properly perform repair work on U.S. Air Force cargo planes.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a decision by a federal judge to dismiss the retaliation claim. A majority of the appeals court did, however, affirm the judge’s decision to dismiss a False Claims Act claim against United for failure to state a claim.