![]() She said she waited because her boss had disparaged her to a male colleague previously. Meanwhile, Janning didn’t report the incident to a Southwest employee relations investigator until three months later. Janning said in the lawsuit that she was “horrified,” but she kept flying the plane while taking photos “to create a record.” The plane landed safely.Īnd that wasn’t Haak’s final flight - he flew for three more weeks. Janning’s attorney, Frank Podesta, denied she encouraged Haak or made any advances. He said Haak rejected those and adamantly denied a lewd act occurred.Īt his sentencing hearing last year, Haak called the incident “a consensual prank” that got out of hand. When he replied he wanted to fly naked, she told him to go ahead and then made sexual advances after he disrobed, Salnick said. Salnick said it was Janning who asked Haak if there was anything he wanted to do before retiring. He then put the plane on autopilot, stripped off his clothes, began watching pornography on his laptop and committed a lewd act for 30 minutes while taking photos and videos of himself. She said he bolted the door so no flight attendant could enter. Janning said that when they reached cruising altitude, Haak told her this was his final flight and there was something he wanted to do before retirement. Janning believes that’s because he saw a woman was the scheduled co-pilot. She says Haak, a 27-year veteran of the airline, had used his seniority rights the previous day to bump another pilot who had been scheduled to command the flight. The Associated Press doesn’t normally identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes, but Janning through her attorney agreed to the use of her name.Īccording to the lawsuit filed last week in Orange County, Florida, Janning had never met Haak before August 2020, when she was his co-pilot on a flight from Philadelphia to Orlando. The union did not respond to a phone call seeking comment. Southwest said it supported Janning and that it would “vigorously defend” itself against the lawsuit. Haak’s attorney, Michael Salnick, said Wednesday that his client disrobed only after Janning encouraged him to, never did anything else and that there were no previous incidents. He pleaded guilty last year to a federal misdemeanor charge of committing a lewd, indecent or obscene act and was sentenced to probation. She also alleges that the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association conspired with the airline and refused to support her. (AP) - A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing the company, her union and a former colleague who pleaded guilty last year to dead-bolting the cockpit door during a flight and stripping naked in front of her.Ĭhristine Janning alleges that Southwest retaliated by grounding her after she reported Michael Haak to the company and the FBI, that it kept him employed despite an alleged history of sexual misconduct and that managers disparaged her in memos. READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Haak any benefits he was entitled to receive as a result of his separation from (the airline),” Mainz said in a statement. “Nonetheless, Southwest did investigate the matter and as a result, ceased paying Mr. Southwest spokesperson Chris Mainz said the airline “does not tolerate behavior of this nature and will take prompt action if such conduct is substantiated.” “The embarrassment and resulting publicity of this incident has in and of itself been humbling to Michael Haak and has served as punishment in many ways,” he wrote. His attorney Michael Salnick said in a court filing that his client deserves a lenient sentence given his “lifetime of hard work and kindness.” I never imagined it would turn into this in a thousand years,” Haak said during the virtual hearing. “It started as a consensual prank between me and the other pilot. ![]() STAY INFORMED! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER! Mark Coulson before he was ordered to serve probation and pay a $5,000 fine. Haak, who retired after the incident, was charged in April and pleaded guilty to committing a lewd, indecent or obscene act in a public place.Īccording to the reports, Haak apologized on Friday before US Magistrate Judge J. “This is not the kind of aberrant behavior that anyone should accept,” the prosecutor added. ![]()
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