Hmm...Is Southwest Airlines OK with Sexual Harassment in the Workplace?
Amid a flood of victims at various airlines contacting me, SWA files a new motion to dismiss in the Christine Janning case
The usual content advisory and trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault
If you are a current or former FLIGHT ATTENDANT interested in telling your story of sexual assault anonymously in a new documentary series, you can reach me confidentially at: MeTooAirlines@proton.me. READ ABOUT THE DOCUSERIES HERE
Welcome to The Landing’s new subscribers on this International Women’s Day! I never dreamed my articles about late American Airlines pilot and serial predator Sten Molin in September of 2021 would open the floodgates for women*—from pilots to flight attendants to management—to come forward and say, me, too.
New victims have been contacting me regularly, and they’re saying enough is enough.
Note to every airline that knows of harassers, abusers and rapists in their ranks: your time’s almost up. I am hearing from women within your airlines, and they are furious, and they are talking.
They are talking to me. Their lawyers are talking to me. They are also reaching out for support and advice from colleagues in aviation who have already come forward, sued, or plan to talk. They are tired. They are sick of being assaulted on the job and then ignored, retaliated against and told by you to offer service with a smile as they fly with their predator at the controls.
On this International Women’s Day 2023, mark these words, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, American, United, and all the others:
With every woman who comes forward publicly, including in lawsuits, from flight attendants Greta Anderson and Kimberly Goesling to pilots Christine Janning, Karlene Petitt and Andrea Ratfield (stay tuned for Andrea’s story in a future post) and many others you’ll hear about in the near future, the tsunami gains power. The chain grows stronger.
I’m tipping you off so you can’t say you didn’t know: Do the real work to clear the decks of predators and predatory behavior now. If you start the process of eliminating your rape and harassment culture immediately, you will help real people in real time. Does that matter to you?
Southwest: The law doesn’t require us to keep sexual harassment out of the workplace
A couple things jumped out at me in Southwest Airlines’ new and predictable motion to dismiss various counts in Christine Janning’s amended complaint, which I wrote about earlier this year.
First is the airline’s seeming assertion that Southwest (SWA) is not responsible for keeping their workplace free from sexual harassment because a certain state law allegedly says they don’t have to.
In its argument that Capt. Janning fails to prove negligent retention and negative supervision against the airline in her suit—a suit that claims SWA knew its pilot Michael Haak was accused of assault and harassment before he targeted Janning—SWA writes:
“Plaintiff’s allegations clearly indicate that her claims are based on SWA’s alleged failure to “prevent or curtail [Captain] Haak’s sexual predation prior to his sexual assault on Ms. Janning.” Am. Compl. ¶¶137, 145. However, “Florida law does not recognize a common law cause of action based on the negligent failure to maintain a workplace free of sexual harassment.”
Read the full document here:
Basically, this all comes back to the fact that several victims who work for SWA—women and men—have made allegations against Michael Haak dating back to at least 2008. Janning’s newest legal filing frames the alleged existence of prior victims as another link in the chain, which is a softer way of saying that if someone had stopped Haak earlier, perhaps Christine Janning would never have been trapped in a cockpit with him:
“Prior to his interactions with Ms. Janning, Cpt. Haak had been sent to the Charm School at least once in his career following an incident in 2008 during which Cpt. Haak sexually assaulted a Southwest flight attendant after forcing himself into her hotel room.…
…Cpt. Haak had been reported for exposing himself to flight attendants and other pilots in a hotel following a flight, and for disseminating nude photographs of his wife to flight attendants in a misguided effort to convince them to have sex with him.
Following Cpt. Haak’s trip to the Charm School, Cpt. Haak performed several other instances of sexual assaults and sexual harassment, and the complaints by other employees to Southwest were routinely ignored by Southwest.
This also includes a Seminole County (Florida) matter alleging repeated acts of domestic violence and stalking by Cpt. Haak against a woman to whom Cpt. Haak was not married.
Despite the many complaints and instances of Cpt. Haak’s sexual predation prior to Cpt. Haak’s meeting Ms. Janning, Southwest did absolutely nothing to forestall Cpt. Haak’s misdeeds, apart from sending him on vacation to Montreal.”
This leads me to the second eyebrow-raising aspect of the Feb. 28 motion: Southwest does not deny Haak was previously reported for assault and/or harassment. They don’t deny they reprimanded him. They simply say they don’t have a duty under Florida law to protect employees from perpetrators of these kinds of offenses (we won’t talk about how the airline is actually based in Texas).
Third and finally, it struck me that SWA filed the motion on behalf of only two defendants in the case: the airline itself, and pilot Michael Hawkes. Does this mean they’re leaving the other defendants—retired Captain Michael Haak and pilot David Newton—twisting in the wind?
And, if left to pay their own legal fees, would Haak and Newton be motivated therefore to testify against Southwest? That is pure conjecture on my part. There has been no sign of a legal move or strategy from either Haak or Newton, and none of the parties in the case (other than Janning’s attorney) have ever returned my request for comment. It’s an eyebrow-raiser, for sure.
Southwest’s ongoing legal battles over alleged sexual harassment
I wonder if SWA learned anything from a federal harassment-related lawsuit the airline settled back in 2007, when it agreed to pay three victims $100,000?
You can read all about the awful events in Oakland, Calif. in this article, but here is the gist from that story:
Southwest denied the allegations but agreed to engage in mediation shortly after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the suit, the agency said. "I think they wanted to resolve this quickly," William Tamayo, regional attorney for the EEOC, said today of Southwest. "We thought we had a very strong case. I think they saw they had a problem. It's not that common that companies approach us and say they want to settle early."
The piece goes on to explain the offender appeared to have kept his job at SWA despite…
“The man, who was not named, also flaunted nude pictures of women in front of Martin and supervisors, "loudly simulated sex acts" and made "vulgar references to his sexual exploits," EEOC officials said.
The harassment made the women cry every day, and everyone at Southwest Airlines' Oakland center knew of the man's reputation as a "serial harasser," the EEOC said.
The man received two written warnings from supervisors about his behavior after the women complained, the suit said. After that, he accosted [one victim] in the parking lot and threatened to run her over, an incident that led to a two-day suspension, according to the federal agency.”
Enough is enough.
A note to victims who have not yet come forward:
Other alleged victims of Southwest Airlines pilots have contacted Christine Janning’s attorney Frank Podesta. If you have been harassed or assaulted by an employee of SWA, you can confidentially contact his office at StopAirlineAssault@proton.me
*I always say this: I’ve heard only from women assaulted/harassed at U.S.-based airlines. We know there are male victims, too, and I would love to hear from you. Your confidentiality is guaranteed unless and until you would like your story shared.
About me
I’m an award-winning journalist and author of the #1 bestselling book The Strong Ones, the true story of a groundbreaking 7-month U.S. Army women’s strength study and its long-term impact on women in the military.
The Landing was born after I wrote a lengthy investigative series and personal defense of American Airlines First Officer Sten Molin, the pilot of tragic flight 587 and a friend of mine in the late 1990s. Starting in late 2021, dozens of women, most of them flight attendants, came forward to re-educate me and my readers about Molin’s double life as a serial rapist, harasser, stalker and predator of underage girls, some of whom reported him to American, which allegedly did nothing to stop him. As a direct result of their response to my stories, sources say American offered settlements to most of his victims in return for nondisclosure agreements.
My reporting has appeared in national and international publications including U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, The Sunday Times Magazine (UK), People, Glamour, Shape and more. I contributed to the feminist anthology Letters of Intent along with such icons as Judy Blume, Ntozake Shange and Gloria Steinem. Perhaps best known for my viral resignation letter from People magazine, I covered high-profile crime stories for them across Europe and the U.S. including the Amanda Knox case in Italy, the disappearance of Madeline McCann in Portugal, and the tragic school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. I am the author of two mystery novels: The Underdogs and Famous Last Words.