Two Years After AA Flight 587 Reality Check, a Book
I posted emotional articles on Sept. 29, 2021 about my friend Sten Molin. Then I learned he was a rapist.
Contact me anytime at MeTooAirlines at proton . me
The usual TW for discussion of rape, sexual assault and ephebophilia
I’ve felt for a while that an all-encompassing, definitive narrative and record of this story is needed.
I, for one, need some sort of closure, for lack of a better word. I don’t think I’m the only one.
It’s been two years since I learned my old pal Sten Molin, the American Airlines first officer blamed for bringing down flight 587 and taking hundreds of innocent lives, was a rapist and child molester (here’s what I wrote to mark the first year).
I’m still receiving harrowing reports from new victims, several of whom were underage girls at the time of their assaults.
The stories I wrote and the comments you left led to women at several other major carriers contacting me about assaults by their own colleagues.
Just this week, news of a coke-sniffing pilot, sent in by an eagle-eyed reader, is chilling if unsurprising. The British Airways FO would still be twitching away at the controls if he hadn’t bragged. If the FA hadn’t reported him. These two factors don’t come together often, I suspect, which means this deadly behavior happens much more than passengers know.
Surely SM’s prolific predation and ability to roam and attack with impunity, protected by higher ups and co-conspirators, is the most extreme example you’ll ever come across, and that is a way into a book about this open secret in aviation. I’ve begun writing a book to acknowledge his living victims and hopefully help validate their experiences.*
I’m looking for more people to speak to me on the record about SM’s life, career and crimes as part of the broader #MeToo-in-aviation conversation.
Please email me if you’re willing to talk broadly and/or specifically about what it was like to fly with SM back then, and/or with major carriers in general. “On the record” means I know who you are, but no one else has to. You would not have to be named or even directly quoted unless you specifically want to be.
Like my U.S.-military-focused book The Strong Ones: How a Band of Civilian Women Made Their Mark on the Army, this will be positioned for a general audience rather than a niche aviation one. As a civilian, I was able to write comfortably about the military because of rare, deep and exclusive access to top sources, something I’ll need to do again in this case.
I’m looking to speak to anyone who flew with, worked with or socialized with SM in any capacity. That includes credible sources who might still think highly of him—if you’re not delusional and not abusive, I’ll talk to you.
If I already know you and you have questions about content or the publishing process for the book,** and for more information about what kinds of questions I’d ask, shoot me a note and I’ll be happy to share. Anyone who’s already spoken to me can tell you I’m low-pressure and that maintaining confidentiality of sources, witnesses and victims is everything to me.
Side Note
Just a reminder Sten Molin was not a Navy pilot who lost a friend in a training exercise (aka The Top Gun Story). Stolen valor is the worst of the worst. He did not attend Annapolis nor train in Pensacola.
He did not get a degree from MIT, he was not training to be an astronaut, and he did not get a scholarship to Yale medical school or work his way through Yale undergrad as a bartender.
He attended the University of Rhode Island (I met his college friends) and did not graduate. According to a source, he completed his undergraduate degree online.
He didn’t fly Concorde.
His father did not escape East Germany nor fly dying planes out to the old boneyard or burrow under the Berlin wall. He got a psychology degree from the University of Buffalo and flew for Eastern Airlines.
It is almost certain he was not prom king in Greenwich (I’ll confirm this in my research for the book).
He was not the youngest pilot ever hired by American.
He was probably related to a U.S. president.
There is no evidence he was a varsity football player (again, I’ll try to confirm).
By all accounts he could fake these things brilliantly, from knowing the ins and outs of life in the military to speaking flawless French to the ability to converse with such confidence about medicine that he could fool an actual doctor. There’s more, but you get the gist.
Email me.
-Sara
*If any victims/survivors have their own projects in mind or on the boil, I am happy to help or advise you if I can. Just ask.
**Caveat, there might not be a book if I can’t get more sources on the record.
I didn't fly with him, but have insight to that event... could be character for who he was.
We can also debunk the “brilliant genius youngest pilot” fallacy as well. He was hired because American Airlines at the time were desperate for pilots because of rapid expansion and deregulation. A quote from a well sourced book.
“In 1991, just four years after his first flight, he was hired by American Airlines and assigned the three-engine turbojet Boeing 727 - a huge step up from the small single-engine airplanes and commuter airplanes he was accustomed to flying. (As mentioned previously as an Flight Engineer)
𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻'𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.
Employment challenges caused many major airlines accustomed to hiring military pilots with thousands of operational hours flying high-powered equipment to increasingly civilian sources for employees. Although many of these civilian pilots possessed comparable amounts of flight time to military pilots, often the type of aircraft - light single-engine and small multi-engine airplanes - and flying environment - often visual or simulated instrument flight in familiar, local areas - limited their exposure to the fast-paced pressures of scheduled air service flying complex aircraft in inclement weather, unfamiliar airspace, and nonroutine operations. Aviation industry analysts worried about the safety implications of this rapid industry expansion, in general, and the ramifications of putting less-experienced pilots in control of large powerful passenger jets.