While I personally think it is incredibly stupid to talk about this case since no one really knows what happened and the fact that this thread will have zero impact on the outcome, apparently, lots of people here are incapable of viewing events from someone else’s point of view don’t understand what life is like for a woman in a male-dominated industry.

To those that wonder why she didn’t report it right away: She was drugged. Besides dealing with the side effects of the drug, she actually didn’t know what happened. She was also probably worried about her job. Haven’t you ever slept through an alarm and woken up in a panic? You can’t think straight and the only thing running through your head is, “I got to get downstairs and minimize the delay.” It would also be very disorienting not recognizing the room you were in. At this point, she is probably blaming herself thinking she drank too much and has ruined her career. The captain was also probably panicking making it even harder for her to think clearly. She probably never had time to think about it until well after she got home and started putting the pieces together.

To those that wonder why she didn’t file a police report: Most women have trouble with this step because our society instantly shames them (just read the first few comments). And those that don’t shame her feel pity. Most pilots are Type A personalities and don’t want to be shamed or pitied. She also probably felt guilt knowing that besides ruining his career, he could end up in jail. If they went out drinking, she probably liked the guy and heard about his family. It can be hard to ruin a person’s life especially if you don’t have any actual memories of what they did to you.

The way we are coached to answer the “What do you do if the captain you are flying with appears drunk?” probably didn’t help her either. We are told to bend over backwards to get that captain to realize the mistake before we call anyone. And then even when we do, we say, “The captain does not appear fit to fly” or we threaten to call out sick ourselves. In a similar way, she probably just wanted to handle incrementally and see how the company would handle it before she got the law involved. Maybe she thought his family would already suffer a lot if he lost his job and didn’t want them to their father/husband in jail too.

During the investigation by the company, she learned more details including like seeing the video of herself, and that is probably when she went from feeling ashamed to angry. When she realized that because she didn’t play hardball and get the cops involved right away, the company was just going to file it under, “she said, he said” and she knew that it would be her reputation that would be ruined, she filed the case because at least it would clear her name and bring justice.