Originally Posted by LegalTender

First, we don't know their prank involved recording passengers. The iPad image could have been a still shot, captured pre-flight. There's no corroboration of streaming live video apart from her recollection.

Second, the pilots filed an affirmative defense denying harassment or intending emotional distress.



A "Final Pre-Trial Conference" is set for November 19th, after many delays.

Originally Posted by smmrfld

Based on convos with flight crew friends over quite a long time, anyone that thinks that other airlines are immune to this stuff is delusional. Similar stories abound.

Originally Posted by fttc

So by your logic, since harassment happens at many companies, people should accept it and let it go, right?

Originally Posted by oreocookies

You ignored all my other points, but responding to you, how can we possibly be sure that passengers weren't at risk of being recorded if a camera was put into the bathroom to set up the prank? The point remains that, at some point, a camera was placed into the bathroom. That should never be considered acceptable by Southwest, and I would argue that does "invade and intrude upon the Plaintiff's privacy and seclusion" because she was led to believe that she was being recorded in the bathroom. It was either a "prank" or it really happened, but if it was a "prank", then the whole "joke" was to cause her "emotional distress" by making her believe that her "privacy and seclusion" appeared to have been "invaded and intruded upon." And again, to my earlier point, which you ignored, it sure sounds like sexual harassment to me.

Originally Posted by smmrfld

Please indicate which portion of my post supports acceptance of harassment. Doubt you'll find it. Brush up on your reading comprehension skills; should you do so, you'll quickly see that I was pointing out that such behavior is prevalent across many airlines.

Originally Posted by fttc

Well you now say that it happens everywhere and it's the norm of the day, and you certainly don't seem want to do anything about it in all your 1 liners. So my post is a perfect logical conclusion about what you posted.

At least you now suddenly don't argue it's fake anymore as what you imply in your posts earlier.

Originally Posted by smmrfld

LOL good try, but fail. And it's pretty apparent that the incident is quite different from the initial reporting. If you can't see that, then, well, not much we can do for you in this forum.

Originally Posted by LegalTender

My guess is it will be settled. Baum Hedland don't typically waste a lot of time, energy and money. They have a pair of senior partners on the case.

Originally Posted by lougord99

This thread no longer contains new information or thoughts and should be locked.

Originally Posted by nachosdelux

here is how the "joke" works:

Captain records himself in lav with phone/Ipad.

Later, crew calls for F/A to come in cockpit . Captain goes to lav (or just leaves the cockpit)

First Officer shows the video of captain in the lav (taken earlier), purporting it to be a live feed.

F/A is horrified, believing it is in fact a live feed.

Surprise! Joke's on you.

Originally Posted by hat attack

99.9 probability that nachosdelux explanation is what happened.
Sadly, these types of 'jokes' are not uncommon with certain pilots.

Originally Posted by oreocookies

A lot of problems with this theory.

First, this joke still requires that a camera be put in the airplane lav, which is not cool. If it was streaming on the iPad, the flight attendant would've been able to see that when the pilot left, the iPad showed it - meaning it was also showing any passengers who used the bathroom because it's not as if the pilot were setting up and removing the camera mid flight. This "prank" still would've involved filming passengers in the bathroom.

Second, isn't the entire point of pranks that the target of the prank eventually finds out that none of it was real so everyone can laugh and the target can feel silly? That never happened here. According to the lawsuit, the flight attendant was told it was a security measure and to not tell anyone else. The flight attendant and a bunch of other attendants then reported the incident to Southwest.

And lastly, even if it was a "prank" (which still doesn't even make it okay) Southwest acted irresponsibly in not dealing with it right away so they could collect the evidence while it was there, and in not immediately detaining the pilots for question, as well as getting the cockpit recording. This "prank" explanation hardly lets Southwest off the hook.

And this "prank" does sound like a version of sexual harassment - "hey, we're spying on you while you pull you're pants down and you can't do a thing about it, ha ha ha ha." That shouldn't be considered acceptable behavior by Southwest or any airline.

Originally Posted by rubystone

Southwest should come clean and explain what happened. These pilots are still flying and passengers should be assured this did not / will not happen on southwest flight.

Originally Posted by WillCAD

And at the point where the FA victim believed it was real enough to make a formal complaint, these geniuses would have showed the FA that the footage was staged, and there were no cameras in the lavs. But that didn't happen; instead they denied everything, which indicates to me that it wasn't a prank, it was a couple of pervs who planted a real camera in the lav and forgot to turn the feed off when one of them went to the lav himself.

Granted, I could be wrong. It could have been staged footage shown to the FA as a sick, sophomoric joke. But THAT IS STILL A CRIME.



Agreed, even if this was nothing more than a staged prank, the pilots should be charged with sexual harassment and disciplined according to Southwest's policies and applicable laws.

At minimum, the footage on the iPad that the FA saw, if it was an intentional prank, is essentially the pilot flashing the FA. If a pilot drops trau in front of an FA via an iPad, how is that any different than dropping trau in front of an FA in person? It's flashing, which is a sex offense, and when done on the job (whether as a 'prank' or not), it's sexual harassment.



When the complaint was filed, these guys should have been removed from flight status pending the outcome of an investigation.

Originally Posted by NoStressHere

Here is what was in USA Today this morning.


"Southwest will vigorously defend the lawsuit. When the incident happened two years ago, we investigated the allegations and addressed the situation with the crew involved. We can confirm from our investigation that there was never a camera in the lavatory; the incident was an inappropriate attempt at humor which the company did not condone."