Two More Southwest Pilots Named in Sexual Assault, Retaliation Lawsuit
BREAKING: In defaming a fellow pilot, Michael Hawkes and David Newton became links in a chain of events leading to her assault, lawsuit says
The usual content advisory and trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault
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
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
In today’s episode of Airlines Protecting Predators Who Work for Them, we present a brand-new legal filing. And it is a doozy.
If you thought Southwest’s scheduling meltdown over the holidays displayed an alarming degree of mismanagement (and contributed to a $220 million loss in one financial quarter, no less), buckle up.
Southwest Airlines Captain Christine Janning’s legal team just filed an amendment to her explosive 2022 sexual assault lawsuit, and the new allegations about two other pilots connected to her traumatic experiences in the cockpit with Captain Michael Haak are disturbing.
The fresh filing accuses Southwest Captains Michael Hawkes and David Newton of slander, libel and retaliation, and also includes a new count against Haak for sexual battery.
Over its 44 detail-packed pages, the filing (embedded below) shines a spotlight on Southwest’s alleged toxic and pervasive “Old Boys’ Club” culture, one Janning’s complaint says is “the perfect breeding ground” for what happened to her.
The Background
The original civil suit in September 2022 detailed the unspeakable things Haak, now retired, subjected his co-pilot Christine Janning to while she stayed steadfast at the controls to ensure the safe passage of dozens of souls.
As a jet bound for Orlando on August 10, 2020, hurtled through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, Haak, then a 60-year-old captain, locked the cockpit door against federal regulations and allegedly masturbated for 30 minutes “in front of Ms. Janning while watching pornography on a tablet” without her consent.
Janning, a pilot of 27 years, sued Haak for sexual harassment and Southwest Airlines for retaliation, discrimination, slander and other torts; she also named her union, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), alleging conspiracy. (Haak, a U.S. Air Force veteran, has already been convicted on related charges in federal court).
As of this writing, Haak, a resident of Florida, has still not been served in the original suit despite ongoing attempts by Janning’s legal team at a series of addresses, I’m told.
A Chain of Events: New Details
Enter Southwest pilots David Newton and Michael Hawkes, who have both held management positions at the airline.
Janning’s suit traces a path from their behavior to Haak’s lewd conduct.
It started in the run-up to the August 2020 cockpit incident, according to the new filing, when Haak’s two bosses—then-Orlando Chief Pilot Michael Hawkes and, above him, then-Headquarters Chief Pilot for Southwest Operations David Newton—were slandering Janning, telling various people that she was a “slut” and a “whore.”
From the filing (embedded below):
Due to their dislike for Ms. Janning, both Cpt. Newton and Cpt. Hawkes had openly discussed, with several Southwest personnel and other individuals, the claim that Ms. Janning was a “slut” and a “whore.”
Not only did these two veteran male captains throw around misogynistic and unfounded claims about a colleague, but they appear to believe this is an acceptable way to talk about women, according to the suit, which alleges Newton and Hawkes also felt comfortable enough to put defamatory words in writing and send them around to their and Janning’s colleagues. This alleged conduct formed the basis for claims of slander (defamation by spoken word) and libel (defamation by the written word) against both men.
I have reached out for comment from Haak, SWAPA (previously) and Newton and Hawkes via their employer/fellow defendant Southwest Airlines, and will update the story if I hear back from them.
It is against this background that Haak, weeks away from retirement in August 2020, arranged to fly with Janning the day of the incident, bumping the flight’s original captain, according to the suit.
The amended complaint tells the story:
“Haak, relying on the statements of his superiors, Cpt. Newton and Cpt. Hawkes, that Ms. Janning was a “slut” and a “whore,” believed that his chances of success in his mission to perform sexual acts in a cockpit “before retiring” would be increased if he were flying with a First Officer who was a “slut” and a “whore.”
Therefore,
This “information” that Ms. Janning was allegedly a “slut” and a “whore” played a direct role in Cpt. Haak’s decision to pick up a flight in which Ms. Janning was serving as First Officer in the hopes that his bizarre sexual fantasies (to fly a plane nakedly, and perform sexual acts in flight) would be fulfilled.
Let that sink in. Two men, one of them a veteran pilot who served in the U.S. Marine Corps (according to Michael Hawkes’ LinkedIn page), created an environment wherein a predator felt emboldened to set up and follow through with a twisted fantasy on a woman without her consent, all while arguably endangering the lives of everyone on that Orlando-bound airplane, according to the suit.
Again, I have not had a response to my request for comment from Hawkes, Haak, Newton or Southwest, so we don’t know what their perspective is on all of this.
Retaliation and ‘The Old Boys’ Club’
Considering the harm done to Capt. Janning, one might suspect that when consequences descended, they’d fall on the male pilots who behaved so atrociously.
One would be wrong.
Retaliation stemming from the mid-air incident and everything that happened afterward was aimed squarely at Capt. Janning, the lawsuit says.
After she contacted the FBI about the cockpit incident with Haak, Southwest grounded her multiple times and gave a different reason in each case; her pay was reduced during those periods.
In April 2021, she reported a possible COVID-19 exposure to Assistant Chief Pilot Paul Kury, who told her it was company policy to pull her from the schedule for 20 days, costing her paid sick days. Interestingly, Janning’s ex-husband, also a Southwest Airlines pilot, had the same exposure to the same family member, reported it, and was not removed from duty nor did he lose valuable sick leave.
According to the lawsuit, the female pilot was grounded while the male pilot was not because…
Mr. Kury’s explanation as to the disparate treatment was that Southwest “had to make a decision.” In other words, there was no clearly stated grounds afforded for the disparate treatment. Of course, only one of the two participated in an FBI investigation for sexual predation on a Southwest flight.
That’s the smaller stuff.
The big thing, the weapon I’ve seen wielded in multiple cases of airline employees reporting sexual assaults by male colleagues, is the threat and/or mention of a psychological evaluation.
Questions about a pilot’s mental fitness can be devastating to their career. Janning says in her lawsuit that Southwest has been known to send “individuals who are not male pilots to psychological evaluations with preordained results where necessary to eliminate said employees, among other things.”
Here’s one way this tactic was used against Janning, according to the suit:
“On December 10, 2020, in front of Assistant Chief Pilot Paul Kury, Ms. Janning inquired of Cpt. Hawkes what his motivation was for slandering her. Ms. Janning expressed that Cpt. Hawkes’s slanderous comments created an unsafe work environment.
Cpt. Hawkes did not deny defaming Ms. Janning with her male colleagues, and apologized for his comments. Immediately following this meeting, Cpt. Hawkes wrote five pages of false commentary about Ms. Janning and published this information in her personnel file, which is available to more than one hundred Southwest employees, attacking her emotional and psychological fitness. This severely damaged Ms. Janning’s reputation within Southwest.”
But why? Why, when one of their own has been trapped in a cockpit with a six-foot-four male superior officer allegedly sexually assaulting her, do they not back up the victim?
That’s where the Old Boys’ Club closes ranks. Janning says in her suit that the union, SWAPA, actually conspires with Southwest to lift male pilots while endangering and discriminating against women:
“…for the entire life of Southwest, an “old boys’ club” culture has existed at Southwest, wherein male pilots were prioritized above all other employees at Southwest.
This culture had been arranged and agreed to by Southwest and SWAPA as the format by which both companies would operate…
Both Southwest and SWAPA has repeatedly acted on this agreement and conspiracy by promoting male pilots ahead of female pilots, burying the indiscretions of male pilots (including unwanted sexual advances of male pilots towards female staff and male non-pilots)…among other things.
This conspired culture at both Southwest and SWAPA fostered a perfect breeding ground for the incidents and claims that follow.”
Janning’s own union, which exists to advocate for all Southwest Airlines pilots, did not support her, she says. Instead, SWAPA championed Haak, who was convicted in federal court for getting his dick out in front of his female co-pilot while he was supposed to be flying a plane.
SWAPA vice president Captain Michael Santoro wrote a letter of support for Haak when he was facing criminal charges (read it in full, along with more about Southwest’s retaliation, back at my original story).
Santoro wrote that “Captain Haak did not have any employment-related issues nor complaints for which he would have required union representation,” then closed the letter with “Captain Haak had spotless employment and training records.”
This is patently, demonstrably false, Janning says in her suit. SWAPA actually concealed “the reports of no fewer than three female and one male victims that SWAPA representatives had interviewed as part of the SWAPA Professional Standards Committee’s investigation into the sexual assault and/or harassment claims against Cpt. Haak.”
Other Victims & The The Charm School ‘Vacation’ Experience
As I have reported before, several victims—women and men—have made allegations against Haak, and Janning’s attorney says they believe there are others who might be afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation.
(If you are a victim of assault or harassment by an SWA employee, there has never been a better time to come forward confidentially to Janning’s legal team. There is strength in numbers. See contact details up top).
First things first. As a reminder from earlier stories, Southwest Airlines has a place for Pilots Behaving Badly in quaint Montreal, Canada. This “Charm School,” as SWA employees call it, is where pilots caught in disreputable situations are sent for “a slap on the wrist” and to “keep their indiscretions out of the public eye.”
Janning’s new filing explains that it’s “Southwest’s policy to refer and send all employees who had been accused of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment to Richardson Management Associates, Ltd.”, where employees “are taught how to avoid improprieties in the workplace.”
This temporary home for wayward pilots sits along the Lachine Canal, steps away from bars, restaurants and at one time, a now-closed strip club; it’s now a 10-minute drive from a bunch of strip clubs. I haven’t confirmed yet that any of the pilots visited at least one of them while undergoing their training, but that might be news for another day.
Janning’s new 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.”
The Other New Charge: Sexual Battery
Last but not least, the new complaint also tells the story of why Janning was a victim of sexual battery in addition to sexual assault as outlined in the original filing:
During the incident, “Ms. Janning was extremely fearful that Cpt. Haak would physically hit her or ejaculate on her. Shortly thereafter, Cpt. Haak actually did strike her.
After Cpt. Haak cleaned himself up with the napkin, he attempted to throw his semen-covered napkin into the hanging garbage bag, and struck Ms. Janning in the left arm.
This caused Ms. Janning to jump, and the semen-covered napkin landed on the center pedestal. Cpt. Haak is liable to Ms. Janning for sexual battery.”
There’s more to this story, and much of it is laid out in the new filing. I’ll be addressing more facets of this case in coming posts, and as the case proceeds.
A Final Note
After just over a year covering a beat I wish didn’t exist, I’ve seen the price women pay for coming forward (I hear only from women but we know there are male victims). Even if it’s a lone email or a tweet sharing their story with me, a complete stranger, it takes a toll.
Those with the resources—in every sense of the word—to pursue an investigation or court case against their assailant or the company that protects their assailant are drained financially, emotionally and physically.
No one does this for the money. No one does this for the glory. They all get push-back from various corners. They do it because they have fight left in them, no one at work will help them if they don’t help themselves, and they don’t intend to take any more crap.
Janning’s lawsuit “is about raising awareness and change,” attorney Frank Podesta told me for this story. “The stats, the numbers, at Southwest are terrible. No more than 3.6 percent of pilots are women. You can imagine how many are women of color.
“It’s an incredibly unrepresented area. They’re not represented in the union. They’re not represented in management anywhere. These claims pouring in where flight attendants or pilots are being sexually harassed, assaulted or battered, [the perpetrators are getting] slaps on the wrist.”
Are you a male pilot who’s watched your colleagues assault and harass women on long-haul trips, on layovers, in the galley, and done nothing? Do you work for American, Delta, Southwest, maybe United?
Are you in a position of power in the aviation industry letting harassment and assault traumatize fellow employees on your watch and not saying a word? Consider standing up for what’s right. Consider what you’d want another man to do if it was your sister, your wife, your daughter being assaulted in the workplace.
Be the change you want to see. Be a hero. Do something.
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.
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.