News Summary

  • A federal judge in Colorado ruled Wednesday that a United Airlines flight attendant's lawsuit accusing the airline of criminal negligence for keeping a pilot on staff after learning of a police investigation into his alleged distribution of indecent images of her can proceed.
  • The flight attendant learned of the investigation in July 2024, after another flight attendant reported the pilot to law enforcement earlier that year. United allegedly learned of the investigation in April but did not conduct an internal investigation, inform the flight attendant, or suspend or fire the pilot. The flight attendant said United's decision caused her anxiety, required her to take leave, and interfered with her work, which the judge found to constitute reasonable damages.
  • Pilot misconduct has been a recurring theme in employment lawsuits against United Airlines. For example, in 2019, United agreed to pay $321,000 to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim that a pilot posted explicit images of flight attendants on a website without consent.

In-Depth Analysis

In asking the judge to dismiss the claims, United argued that the flight attendant "did not allege any damages after April 2024"—when the company learned of the law enforcement investigation—or that any damages resulted from the pilot's retention. United also argued that since the "conduct ceased in April 2024," no damages existed.

But that argument did not account for the flight attendant's claims: after she learned of the investigation from police and before the pilot was fired, she took several days off due to anxiety over the pilot's crimes and United's failure to address the matter. She also claimed that United's inaction interfered with her job performance, as "personal rapport and affability with United employees and customers" were crucial to her performance.

United ultimately fired the pilot in July 2024, after his arrest.

Although Judge Nina Wang allowed the negligence claim over the pilot's retention to proceed, she dismissed the flight attendant's other claims, including a hostile work environment claim, a vicarious liability claim under Colorado law related to dissemination of intimate images, and negligent hiring and supervision claims.

In dismissing those claims, Judge Wang repeatedly noted that United had no knowledge of the pilot's conduct before April 2024, and that the conduct allegedly ended by then. She noted that the flight attendant never claimed the conduct occurred in the workplace, in front of other employees, or during work hours, nor was the misconduct reported to United in any way.

Judge Wang also noted that despite United's awareness of allegations against another pilot, "one pilot's egregious conduct toward another individual does not give rise to an inference that United had constructive knowledge years later of another pilot's egregious conduct toward plaintiff."

United declined to comment on the ruling. The plaintiff's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.