Pilot sues Southwest Airlines and union after she says she faced retaliation when she reported her co-pilot for exposing himself and watching pornography during a flight

Burbank Exteriors And Landmarks – 2020AaronP/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Images Christine Jannings is suing Southwest Airlines and her union after she says they did not support her during a sexual misconduct investigation. According to the lawsuit, Jannings was locked inside the cockpit with her former co-pilot while he masturbated in front of her.   The lawsuit claims that the union worked with the airline to conceal the co-pilot’s previous sexual misconduct complaints.

  A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing the company, her union, and her former co-pilot after her co-pilot deadbolted the door to the cockpit during a flight and exposed himself to her while he watched pornography.  According to a lawsuit filed last week, Christine Janning claims that Southwest retaliated against her after she reported her at-the-time co-pilot Micheal Haak, who later admitted to performing lewd acts during the flight in 2021.  During a 2020 flight from Philadelphia to Orlando, Haak told Janning there was “something he wanted to do before retiring,” then proceeded to bolt lock the cockpit door trapping him and her inside so he could masturbate in front of he while watching pornography on his tablet, according to the lawsuit.

According to the suit, Haak photographed and videotaped himself during the act and encouraged Janning to do the same. Janning took photographs of the incident to create a record.  Three months after the incident, Janning made a formal report to Southwest Airlines but was later informed that her case was closed with no internal investigation because Haak had retired and the Airline was unwilling to contact him, according to the suit.

 According to the suit, Janning delayed making the report because she feared retaliation from Orlando’s chief pilot, and did not want him involved in the case, because of a prior incident where he “disparaged” her to a male captain.  After her case was closed with Southwest, Jannings met with the FBI to privately handle the incident, according to the suit.  Despite Janning wanting to keep the matter private, Southwest published the events to at least 25 employees, according to the suit.

She also claimed she was grounded by the airline.  According to the lawsuit, Janning had her flight status removed indefinitely by the flight operations leaders after they were made aware of a “possible lawsuit. “The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association refused to advocate on Janning’s behalf, and the vice president of the union said that Haak had a spotless employment record, according to the lawsuit.

According to the suit, the union assisted Southwest and Haak by concealing previous sexual assault and harassment reports made against Haak by other women before the FBI conducted their investigation.  Haak pleaded guilty in 2021, according to a statement by the Department of Justice.  At his sentencing hearing last year, Haak called the incident “a consensual prank” that got out of hand, according to the Associated Press.

 A spokesperson from Southwest Airlines told Insider that the airline takes all matters related to workplace conduct very seriously. “The Captain in question retired from Southwest prior to us learning about the event, and we immediately supported our Employee by cooperating with the appropriate outside agencies as they investigated the situation. Our corporate Culture is built upon treating others with mutual respect and dignity, and we plan to vigorously defend against allegations made in this recent complaint,” According to the statement by Southwest.

 The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and an attorney for Haak did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.  Read the original article on Insider.