No comment on this case, but AS once upon a time had a Captain who sued the company for porn in the cockpit due to a "hostile work environment." She got a rumored 7 figure settlement in addition to Captain "medical" retirement.

While she was beached the Company had her writing a "tour guide" for pilots to use with PAs. She subsequently copyrighted it even though she wrote it on Company time.

When her husband was killed on Mt. Everest, she had the gall to send a friend around the pilot group collecting "donations" for her "orphaned children's college fund."

It just shows you what people are capable of.

 

Ah, the MD80 porn case. Rumors were the said captain was a horrid pilot/person, allegedly. Heck, I call to action the MeToo4DudesOnly movement.

 

If indeed the trail was ever allowed to go that cold. From what has been presented so far, there is no way to tell.

 

When you wait 8 months to file a lawsuit, it raises questions;
When you fail to file a police report immediately after allegedly being raped, it raises questions;
When you continued your trip, after allegedly being illegally drugged, it raises questions; (assuming she was not dead-heading on)
When you continue your trip, with the co-worker that allegedly drugged and raped you, it raises questions; (assuming she was not dead-heading on)
When you file a lawsuit against the deep-pockets company that employees the co-worker, instead of filing rape charges against the alleged rapist, it raises questions.

All these questions...lead to doubts. These are not unreasonable questions to ask, in my opinion.

 

If indeed those are the facts regarding reporting this, you are certainly correct. On the other hand, it is well within the allowable time for filing a lawsuit. And if, indeed, Alaska has no knowledge of previous incidents or allegations against the captain it would be difficult to find them at fault in any event. But that’s what the civil discovery process is all about.

 

My guess is that it is also very well within the timelines (Statute of Limitations) to file a rape charge, but since there is no evidence available to the court 8 months later, she has been advised to go after her employer.

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...uring-layover/

Answers many of the questions and speculations being posted in this thread.

 

In fact, this was reported sometime ago. She has been on a six month paid LOA and apparently filed the suit only after returning to work and finding him still employed, in an apparent attempt to compel discovery about however many other allegations have been made against the accused.

I don’t think I’d schedule them in the same cockpit if I were Alaska....

 

What a horrible story for the entire industry.

I can't imagine a company and union allowing a PIC to continue flying if they thought her story had some truth to it, although this is a mighty dysfunctional world and I guess anything is possible.

It's also quite possible this is all made up in an attempt to hide chemical dependency, and I say that because I know of an almost identical story.

Regardless, I hope all parties involved find peace. How ridiculous these "adults" are. The fact there is a public agenda here (#metoo is mentioned in the court filing) makes it difficult for me to believe her story.

No maturity or good decision making here.

 

An excerpt.

Pina said she’s since learned that on the night of the incident, a flight attendant reported to the first officer on duty that he had observed the captain walking in a hotel hallway with two glasses of wine and a woman who appeared in danger.

“The crew member didn’t feel comfortable flying with (the captain) the next day, so called the (first officer on duty),” Pina said.

That report triggered the duty officer’s subsequent calls to the captain’s room, asking about his fitness for duty, her lawsuit contends.

After the captain acknowledged drinking, the duty officer scratched the captain and Pina from piloting the return flight to Seattle, she said. The two instead were put in coach seating on a later flight bound for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Pina said.

Before and during the flight, Pina said the captain told her “that I’d been really drunk and had come on to him” the previous evening. She said he also tried to persuade her to “get our stories straight” to avoid putting their jobs at risk.

Back in Seattle, representatives for the pilots’ union and airline officials questioned both pilots, taking statements over the next two days, Pina said.

Pina said she initially didn’t feel comfortable reporting the rape, but changed her mind after returning home after the airline’s interviews and finding “a handprint bruise” on her left thigh and other bruising.

Pina first reported the allegations to her union representative the night of June 7, two days after the alleged assault, and a day later to an Alaska human-resources official.

In early July, Pina said she detailed her allegations again to a lawyer, Marcella Reed, hired by the airline to investigate. The probe focused on whether the captain and Pina potentially violated the company’s policy prohibiting pilots from consuming alcohol within 10 hours before a scheduled flight, she said.

The airline had placed Pina on paid leave beginning in June, telling her not to talk about its investigation, she said. Meantime, Reed took various statements and purportedly informed Pina in August that a review of the hotel’s security video showed the captain tried to forcibly kiss Pina in an elevator.

“She said I was incapacitated, that it took 18 to 20 minutes to get from the elevator to the room, and this whole time he’s trying to get me into the room, and I’m trying to put up whatever fight I can,” Pina said.

Finally in December, Pina said, Alaska’s Seattle base chief informed her that she’d soon be allowed to return to the cockpit. He also asked her: “Betty, let me ask you this, why didn’t you press charges,” Pina recalled.

“And until that moment, I thought telling my company and my supervisor is all I needed to do,” Pina said. “I was shocked when he said that.”

Pina was returned to active duty in January. She fears she may be forced to fly with the captain again — despite the base chief’s promises that she won’t.

She and her attorneys served the airlines with a legal complaint detailing her allegations in mid-February, largely relying on official summaries of Pina’s formal statements to investigators. The airlines didn’t take any corrective action, the lawyers said, so they formally filed suit on Wednesday in King County Superior Court.