BREAKING NEWS in Southwest's 'Cockpit Creep' Case
PLUS: A United Airlines pilot is targeted with abuse, harassment and dangerous doxxing by thugs in uniforms
Content/trigger warning: Brief description of alleged sexual assault, mention of harassment and foul language
Let me start by saying I don’t care what the United Airlines pilot did.
Let me add that as of this morning, the story has changed yet again and there is strong evidence she literally didn’t do anything.
But again, we don’t know. We might never know exactly what happened when a United Airlines pilot hopped into the jump seat to commute to work on a Southwest Airlines flight, an event that was first reported anecdotally on Twitter by @xJonNYC. Or, we might know the full story by the time I hit “send” on this post.
That’s not the point. The issue is that you can’t put the kind of public abuse she’s received from fellow pilots back in the bottle.
The discussion of what happened after that flight quickly spiraled into a terrifying campaign of abuse by a league of non-gentlemen. Angry little men with fragile egos stormed on to social media, anonymous as always, naming and attempting to shame a woman while hiding in the shadows themselves and subjecting her to harassment, threats and calls for a fellow pilot—who they don’t know, and who did nothing directly to them—to never work in aviation again.
As you know, I’ve recently had my own experience with a pile-on by anonymous male American Airlines pilots and their low-brow pals. But they can’t run me out of my career. Intelligent people might stumble on their online ramblings and weird collages of photos of me, but they’ll quickly realize they’re desperate trolls.
What’s happening to this woman is next level.
The images above are from a video posted on Instagram by a Southwest pilot going by @thatsaltyphxcaptain. (I redacted the woman’s face and personal information). His account take up a lot of space denigrating, picking apart, and generally attacking women, including pilots and flight attendants. The comments under his posts are equally disturbing.
We won’t get into the deep feelings of inadequacy and general impotence a man appears to be living with to spend his time abusing women on social media.
His targeting of this United pilot is unhinged. As a passenger, I’d be terrified to fly with someone who behaves like this (cc: Southwest Airlines).
You know that a grown-ass man calling a woman in aviation a C*U**T and posting all her personal information isn’t normal behavior, right?
I am hearing this morning that those engaging in this kind of doxxing and potential defamation might not get away with it this time. That they actually could be disciplined and/or sued for making a woman a target and putting her life and mental health in danger.
Whatever comes of this, the lesson is NOT “Don’t jump to conclusions.” That should’ve been learned in third grade. No, the takeaway here is “Don’t join a pack of rabid misogynists and put a woman in danger, no matter what you think she did.”
At the very least, the hypocrisy seems to be lost on them—they’re doing to her exactly what they say she did to the pilots they think she reported.
I was also happy to receive messages last night from a commercial airline captain at a totally different airline reporting that some pilots have been overheard smacking down colleagues who start with the abusive talk and pile-on mentality. There are a lot of good men in this industry and, as always, I call for you to stand up and be an ally. Your colleagues need you!
This behavior simply is not going to fly anymore. Airlines are going to be hiring Gen Zers as more dinosaurs are forced to retire. (This is not a dig at age. It’s a dig at prehistoric thinking). Goodbye dinosaurs, goodbye Old Boys’ Club, goodbye fragile egos.
A captain said to me recently, “I thought you had to be of good moral character to get your ATP?”
I though that, too. It doesn’t seem to be the case with too many pilots, so I’m going to ask the FAA that for an upcoming post.
This is actually an excellent segue into the win we have to report today, because the abovementioned culture is the breeding ground that spawned predators like Southwest Airlines Captain Michael Haak and his cohorts, who perpetrate abusive and sometimes criminal acts at work because they are emboldened to do so, knowing they won’t be punished.
They feel safe doing it. Encouraged, in some cases.
So here’s the good news: The judge in Captain Christine Janning’s case has denied some key motions by Southwest and Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) to sweep some of their alleged bad acts under the proverbial rug.
Some fresh wins in Southwest Capt. Christine Janning’s Lawsuit
Janning is a woman who’s stood up and fought back, in part to make sure this kind of abuse and retaliation doesn’t happen to anyone else who simply wants to go to work and do her job.
She, too, has endured male pilots and colleagues weaponizing misogynistic language and false accusations against her to try to harm her career. Remember Southwest pilot Mike Bleau?
It was the spring of 2021, and Jeff Hefner, a retired Southwest Airlines captain and former executive at the pilots’ union, took a call from a pilot he’d never met.
The man introduced himself as Orlando-based Southwest First Officer Mike Bleau.
Bleau, Hefner said, launched into a rant about how much he disliked fellow Southwest F.O. Christine Janning, saying the pilot of some 27 years was a “slut” and a “whore” who caused SWA Captain Michael Haak to strip naked in a cramped 737 cockpit.
Bleau allegedly said “that had to be her fault as she is such a slut and probably instigated the entire incident…she'll f—k anyone who pays her any attention.” He added, "She really needs to be fired, she shouldn't be here.”
We don’t know Bleau’s side of this yet, but the judge in the case has now ruled that Janning’s assertions in her lawsuit “are sufficient at this stage to state a vicarious claim for slander against Southwest.”
This means Southwest will quite possibly answer in court (if the case makes it that far) for allegedly allowing a culture where men feel safe defaming a woman who reported being assaulted in the workplace.
You can read the ins-and-outs of the defamation claims, along with a thoughtful online defense of Janning from the late Southwest Captain Jeff Hefner here.
Another win and a ruling against Janning’s case
You know the sordid origin story by now: SWA pilot Michael Haak was convicted in federal court of stripping naked and watching porn on his tablet in a cramped Boeing 737 cockpit against the will of his co-pilot as she performed her duties at 40,000 feet during the August 2020 creepfest; Janning’s subsequent suit says Haak also masturbated, took 30 minutes to finish, and threw his semen-stained napkin which hit her.
It’s what happened after that nauseating scene that turned this alleged assault into a years-long saga.
A saga of retaliation, defamation, and the revelation that the initiating event never should’ve happened in the first place—because Haak had been reported for sexually abusive behavior before.
Both SWAPA and Southwest knew about his perversions, and yet Haak remained a working captain for years. (This is the basis for Janning’s negligent retention claims).
And now we know that despite motions to dismiss, Southwest and SWAPA will not be successful in sweeping their culturally embedded bad choices and toxic culture under the carpet.
In his latest ruling, the judge refused to dismiss Janning’s assertion of conspiracy between SWA and SWAPA, which included in part, “an ‘old boys’ club’ culture has existed at Southwest, wherein male pilots were prioritized above all other employees at Southwest, which was by arrangement and agreement between Southwest and SWAPA…Southwest and SWAPA had agreed and conspired together to advance the positions and interests of male pilots over the positions and interests of all other employees, agents and staff.”
The judge said that was enough, writing, “there are sufficient factual allegations at this stage to permit the conspiracy claim (Count VIII) to proceed.”
As a non-airline industry person, I’m confused. Isn’t a pilots’ union supposed to advocate for their members in the face of airline bullying and not conspire with the airline to retaliate against one of their own?
Why did both the union and the airline appear to protect Michael Haak?
Because Janning hasn’t backed down, this case is one step closer to the courtroom and there’s every chance we’re going to get a good hard look at the inner workings between Southwest and SWAPA—at how the sausage is made, if you will—with emails galore, communications never meant to see the light of day, and possible conspiracy between the airline and the union laid bare for public consumption.
The judge ruled against Janning on the counts claiming Southwest Captain Michael Hawkes defamed her when he allegedly called her a “slut” and a “whore” multiple times to multiple people, writing, “The majority of the allegations remain insufficient to state a claim.”
(Defamation claims against Captain David “Fig” Newton have yet to be addressed).
Interestingly, though, Hawkes’s actions might still be germane as they pertain to Southwest. Janning and the defendants are in discovery now, and whatever names and actions surface in documentation provided by Southwest and/or SWAPA could be very revealing.
Where in the World is Michael Haak?
Mr. Cockpit Creep, as The Daily Beast anointed him after I broke the story of Janning’s suit in 2022 and the Associated Press picked it up and didn’t credit me after I tipped off its reporter, is still missing.
He has not yet been served in this case despite numerous attempts, I’m told, so counts of sexual assault and sexual battery have yet to be heard.
If you know where Michael Haak is, feel free to contact Janning’s legal team at StopAirlineAssault at proton.me.
xoSara
GREAT UPDATE And Thank you for taking a stand and the fight!