Female Pilot Files Suit Against Southwest After Incident With Colleague

A female Southwest Airlines pilot has filed a lawsuit against the airline, her union, and a male pilot after an incident on the flight deck last year in which the colleague exposed himself to her.

The male pilot, Michael Haak, pleaded guilty to locking the cockpit door and disrobing in front of fellow pilot Christine Janning but insisted it was a consensual prank gone bad.

But Janning filed suit in an Orange County, Florida, court for what she says happened in the aftermath. According to CBS News-Dallas, Janning alleges that Southwest engaged in a subsequent retaliatory campaign against for reporting Haak to both the airline and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Janning’s suit also claims that Southwest continued to employ Haak even in light of allegations that he had a history of sexual misconduct – and that her union, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, worked against her by backing Haak and the carrier.

It’s a sordid tale that will now likely play out in a civil trial after Haak pleaded guilty in criminal court to charges of committing a lewd, indecent, or obscene act. He received probation.

Janning said the incident happened in August of 2021 on a flight from Philadelphia to Orlando. Once the plane reached cruising altitude, Haak – whom she had never met before and was a 27-year veteran – stood up and said there was something he always wanted to do before retiring. That’s when Janning alleged that Haak deadbolted the door to the flight deck and disrobed, began watching a pornographic movie on his laptop, and committed a lewd act.

Haak’s attorney tells a different story.

Michael Salnick told CBS News that his client only stripped naked as part of a consensual prank between the two pilots and that Janning encouraged Haak to do so. Janning’s attorney denied those allegations.

Neither Southwest Airlines nor its pilots’ union returned calls seeking comment.