FORT LAUDERDALE – A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing the business, her union and a former colleague who pleaded guilty previous yr to deadbolting the cockpit door during a flight and stripping bare in front of her.
Christine Janning alleges that Southwest retaliated by grounding her immediately after she documented Michael Haak to the corporation and the FBI, that it saved him employed inspite of an alleged history of sexual misconduct and that supervisors disparaged her in memos.
She also alleges that the Southwest Airways Pilots Affiliation conspired with the airline and refused to guidance her. She is suing Haak for sexual assault. He pleaded guilty last yr to a federal misdemeanor demand of committing a lewd, indecent or obscene act and was sentenced to probation.
Haak’s attorney, Michael Salnick, mentioned Wednesday that his client disrobed only following Janning inspired him to and in no way did something else. Neither Southwest nor the union responded to telephone phone calls trying to get remark.
According to the lawsuit filed previous week in Orange County, Florida, Janning had in no way satisfied Haak in advance of August 2020, when she was his co-pilot on a flight from Philadelphia to Orlando. She says Haak, a 27-calendar year veteran of the airline, experienced employed his seniority legal rights the preceding day to bump one more pilot who had been scheduled to command the flight. Janning thinks that’s for the reason that he saw a female was the scheduled co-pilot.
Janning mentioned that when they reached cruising altitude, Haak instructed her this was his remaining flight and there was a little something he preferred to do before retirement.
She mentioned he bolted the door so no flight attendant could enter. He then set the aircraft on autopilot, stripped off his garments, started seeing pornography on his laptop and fully commited a lewd act for 30 minutes while using photographs and videos of himself.
Salnick claimed it was Janning who questioned Haak if there was just about anything he needed to do before retiring. When he replied he required to fly bare, she instructed him to go in advance and then produced sexual innovations right after he disrobed, Salnick said. He explained Haak rejected those people and adamantly denied a lewd act happened.
At his sentencing listening to past 12 months, Haak referred to as the incident “a consensual prank” that received out of hand.
Janning’s attorney, Frank Podesta, denied she inspired Haak or manufactured any advancements.
Janning explained in the lawsuit that she was “horrified,” but she retained traveling the aircraft while using photos “to make a record.” The aircraft landed safely.
And that was not Haak’s closing flight – he flew for 3 far more months.
In the meantime, Janning didn’t report the incident to a Southwest personnel relations investigator until finally a few months later on. She stated she waited since her boss had disparaged her to a male colleague beforehand. She stated she asked the investigator not to tell her manager, but she did.
Janning claims she was shortly advised that since Haak experienced retired, the airline’s investigation was shut. Janning then went to the FBI, who charged Haak. She alleges Southwest had despatched Haak to a Montreal sexual harassment counseling heart right after a 2008 incident with a flight attendant.
Janning stated as retaliation for the FBI report, she was grounded for extra than a few months, costing her section of her wage. She was then needed to just take “avoidable” flight simulator training before she could get the job done once again.
She also mentioned that on the working day she was grounded, the airline stranded her in Denver and the FBI experienced to e book her a United Airways flight so she could return home to Florida. She explained a Southwest manager despatched a memo to additional than 25 workforce “that designed baseless allegations” about her flying competency.
She reported that when she contacted the union, its leaders did very little to aid her but did produce a letter to Haak’s decide for the duration of his misdemeanor situation indicating he had a “spotless” report.
No hearings have been scheduled.
