A long-serving Aer Lingus pilot who was demoted from captain to first officer after the airline decided he had tried to cover up an alleged error during a training flight is challenging the sanction, claiming it was an act of whistleblower penalisation.
The pilot, Declan McCabe, has made complaints under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, and the Payment of Wages Act 1997 against Aer Lingus Ltd.
Mr McCabe, who joined Aer Lingus in 1999, was demoted from training captain to first officer after being accused of making a mistake inputting co-ordinates for a landing to Dublin Airport and attempting to “cover that up”, his barrister told the tribunal today.
The allegation relates to a training flight from Munich to Dublin on 8th June 2023, when Mr McCabe was supervising a first officer on an Airbus jet when a difficulty with liking the aircraft’s navigation system to the ground system on approach to Dublin.
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The airline’s barrister told the Workplace Relations Commission on Thursday Mr McCabe had failed to make a mandatory safety report, which Mr McCabe denies – his lawyers arguing that none was required.
“My client was faced with allegations that he mistakenly inputted the co-ordinates and tried to cover that up,” Mr David Byrnes BL appearing for Mr McCabe said, as he sought a direction that the airline produce maintenance records for the jet involved in the incident.
Tom Mallon BL, appearing instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox LLP for Aer Lingus, said the complainant’s legal filings had not yet stated when exactly Mr McCabe made a protected disclosure.
He said that Mr McCabe had referred to an email he sent in July 2023 to Aer Lingus chief executive Lynn Embleton expressing concerns about the “trajectory” of a senior manager’s report on the training flight. He called the email cited by Mr McCabe in his complaint “innocuous” and disputed that it was a protected disclosure.
Mr Byrnes said: “Everything my client said is a protected disclosure. My client, as an employee, has zero obligation to label anything he said, or wrote, or sent by owl as a protected disclosure.”
“I’ll have to assume that everything Mr McCabe said to us in his entire career may be relied upon as a protected disclosure,” Mr Mallon said later.
Adjudicator John Harraghy adjourned the matter and said he would seek dates for a resumed hearing in September or October.
