Exposing Flight 587 Pilot Sten Molin's Double Life, 1 Year Later
Where do we go from here? What's next for The Landing
I wanted to write to you one last time in 2022 and say Happy New Year to everyone. The Landing has readers from around the world, most of you with a connection to or keen interest in the aviation industry—which is funny because my decades of journalism experience is mostly in women’s issues, crime, and celebrities.
Still, it’s interesting how all these topics have collided to make one hell of a year bringing a huge story to light.
Thank you all for reading, for subscribing, and, for those who were in a position to sign up for a paid subscription at one time or another, thank you. I didn’t expect that level of support because you owe me nothing (obviously), but I know some of you banded together and contributed, and it meant a lot.
We are all on the same team here, and I think we changed the narrative about a very disturbed and abusive man in a way that will shift the discourse for some time to come, perhaps even permanently.
A year has passed since I lay in the dark in the middle of the night last Christmas Eve texting with a senior person at American Airlines.
They’d contacted me in December 2021 to talk about former First Officer Sten Molin, who was at the controls and was blamed (with contributing factors) by the NTSB for “unnecessary and excessive” rudder pedal inputs that brought down AA Flight 587 in November 2001, killing 265 people.
This person and I were talking it all through because our experiences with Molin were so different—and both of us were coming to terms with the very real fact that you too often don’t have a clue who a person really is and who the hell you’re dealing with in this life.
This source, who had worked closely with Molin, was texting with me to do what so many of us had to over the years: Talk it out, process this man’s double life, make sense of the horrific information flying at us. What was true, what was overblown, what was a lie, who was this person? Welp, we found out, thanks to all the brave, relentless, furious, brilliant women who shared their truths.
This person was fired up by the time I checked back at their responses on Dec. 26. They were ready to find out who Molin was working with, who joined him in his assaults and rapes, who knew what he was doing. I had low hopes, though.
I knew the instant this person dug into the story of male pilots assaulting, harassing and otherwise abusing female flight crew of every description they would be shut down by the airline. I was right. I heard from the source one more time a couple months later, and then they went dark, but not before giving me a few hints about what was going on.
Where Do we Go From Here?
“What was going on,” of course, was the beginning of a fresh, intense, massive clean-up in the form of “settlements” with victims of Sten Molin, who the airline reportedly knew had many allegations against him by young women.
The difference now was that all these allegations were pouring out at once in response to two long, glowing articles I wrote about my friend Sten Molin, who I now know I had a lucky escape from, as did another person in my life who I brought into his orbit, a regret I will live with the rest of my life.
The airline has never responded to my multiple requests for comment.
Just because a victim settles a legal claim, of course, does not mean they can’t tell their story. The move to shut victims up and prevent a company’s culpability from going public is the addition to the settlement called a nondisclosure agreement.
We will talk about this in future posts. We will look at when they can be broken, dissolved, made invalid. Laws are changing with the way victims are silenced in the work place.
Speaking of which, many of you know of the relentless threats and harassment I’ve received over these months for my role in amplifying victims’ stories.
I sent a media inquiry to American recently to ask about their “summer jobs program,” particularly what form it took two decades ago, and to ask if they were aware that women today are all over the internet revealing they were raped by Sten Molin back then when they were girls (the age of consent in New York was and is 17), and these girl(s) were flying on routes with him.
They have not responded. It did occur to me that the airline might, perhaps, reach out to this vocal group and attempt to silence them, too. I will say the abuse has stopped since I sent that missive…coincidence?
We shall see.
In the next year or so, there is still work to be done. We will get a victim of Sten Molin on the record, whether in the documentary or a book or some other large platform. It will happen.
Not everyone has settled and signed NDAs. American Airlines can’t get to every victim, not least because there are others who didn’t work for the company.
I will also continue to watch and cover the Southwest Airlines case.
I got to know Captain Christine Janning through her testimony within all the court documents her lawyer, Frank Podesta, filed in September. Reading about her experience and speaking with her attorney has given me insight into a woman who has put up with untold abuse in the workplace.
It occurs to me she might turn out to be the Erin Brokovich of the airline industry. Again, we shall see how the case plays out in a court of law. But fmr. Southwest Airlines Captain Michael Haak will be taken to court along with the airline, so there will be a reckoning, one way or the other.
Thank you all again for sticking with me. I know this newsletter does not make for light reading.
On that note, here’s a strange event from a (fairly) recent American Airlines flight. What do you think was going on here?
I know people have opinions about what the sounds are, but to me, they sound like an annoyed goat. Thoughts?
Have a great New Year, be safe, and I hope 2023 brings you peace, comfort, happiness and abundance. xoxo -Sara
I'm shocked there are yet more victims coming forward. How did you all find your way here?
I have decided to not use my real details. I am glad people are remaining anonymous as I don’t want to post under my own name. Sorry guys. What nightmare. All these horrible things that Sten did and I feel very fortunate VERY fortunate to have escaped relatively unscathed. I was 16 and working near the airport, Sten used to come in and we got to chatting. His asked me about my Scottish accent, I told him I wanted to be a FA, loved horror films. The usual mundane stuff. He invited me to see a screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2000, so I went along because I thought he was hot. He was a strange ranger. On the way there he played love songs in the car, told me he was a very “passionate” person, he had a female relative who had been “brutally” raped which made him “uniquely attuned” to the suffering of women. He played Kate Bush Wuthering Heights, told me he felt like “the dark and brooding” Heathcliff and loved literature. At the cinema he told me to pretend I was 20 if people asked and that we were boyfriend and girlfriend. During the film he initially touched my hand, then squeezed my hand, arm, shoulder, then leg. Then told me to sit on his lap during the film as it was “getting scary”. He put his hand on my private area and touched me there for the final 20 minutes or so of the film. He never looked at me but kept his head forward watching the screen. He pulled me back into him and whispered it’s ok over and over as if comforting me because we were watching a horror film. He drove me home, acted like nothing had happened. I never told anyone what he did because I felt dirty, disgusting and embarrassed. But the shame is all yours, isn’t it Sten?