She also said that on the day she was grounded, the airline stranded her in Denver and the FBI had to book her a United Airlines flight so she could return home to Florida. She was then required to take "unnecessary" flight simulator training before she could work again. Janning said as retaliation for the FBI report, she was grounded for more than three months, costing her part of her salary. She alleges Southwest had sent Haak to a Montreal sexual harassment counseling center after a 2008 incident with a flight attendant. Janning then went to the FBI, who charged Haak. Janning says she was soon told that because Haak had retired, the airline's investigation was closed. She said she asked the investigator not to inform her boss, but she did. She said she waited because her boss had disparaged her to a male colleague previously. Meanwhile, Janning didn't report the incident to a Southwest employee relations investigator until three months later. Janning said in the lawsuit that she was "horrified," but she kept flying the plane while taking photos "to create a record." The plane landed safely.Īnd that wasn't Haak's final flight - he flew for three more weeks. Janning's attorney, Frank Podesta, denied she encouraged Haak or made any advances. Janning believes that's because he saw a woman was the scheduled co-pilot. She says Haak, a 27-year veteran of the airline, had used his seniority rights the previous day to bump another pilot who had been scheduled to command the flight. Neither Southwest nor the union responded to phone calls seeking comment.Īccording to the lawsuit filed last week in Orange County, Florida, Janning had never met Haak before August 2020, when she was his co-pilot on a flight from Philadelphia to Orlando. Haak's attorney, Michael Salnick, said Wednesday that his client disrobed only after Janning encouraged him to and never did anything else. He pleaded guilty last year to a federal misdemeanor charge of committing a lewd, indecent or obscene act and was sentenced to probation. She also alleges that the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association conspired with the airline and refused to support her. FORT LAUDERDALE - A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing the company, her union and a former colleague who pleaded guilty last year to deadbolting the cockpit door during a flight and stripping naked in front of her.Ĭhristine Janning alleges that Southwest retaliated by grounding her after she reported Michael Haak to the company and the FBI, that it kept him employed despite an alleged history of sexual misconduct and that managers disparaged her in memos.
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