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U.S. NEWS Monday 28 october 2019

Lawsuit: Southwest pilots streamed

video from bathroom cam

PHOENIX (AP) — A lawsuit for Dallas-based Southwest tion, harassment and re-
filed against Southwest Air- and the two pilots denied taliation in connection with
lines by a flight attendant the livestreaming allega- Renee Steinaker's reporting
alleges pilots on a 2017 tions, and Southwest on of the in-flight incident.
flight had an iPad stream- Saturday issued statements A later version of the suit
ing video from a hidden saying it will vigorously con- didn't include those allega-
camera in a bathroom in test the suit and denying it tions but said they would be
one of the airline's jets. places cameras in aircraft restored if the federal Equal In this March 23, 2019, file photo, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737
Southwest responded Sat- lavatories. "When the inci- Employment Opportunity Max aircraft lands at the Southern California Logistics Airport in
urday by denying it places dent happened two years Commission approved su- the high desert town of Victorville, Calif.
cameras in aircraft lavato- ago, we investigated the ing on those allegations.q Associated Press
ries and by calling the 2017 allegations and addressed
incident an "inappropriate the situation with the crew
attempt at humor" not con- involved," the company's
doned by the company. second statement said.
The lawsuit alleges flight at- "We can confirm from our
tendant Renee Steinaker investigation that there was
saw an iPad streaming vid- never a camera in the lav-
eo from the plane's forward atory; the incident was an
bathroom when she en- inappropriate attempt at
tered the cockpit to be the humor which the company
required second person in did not condone."
the cockpit when the pilot The suit against South-
left to use the bathroom west, a company known
about 2½ hours into a Feb. for its joking and irreverent
27, 2017, flight to Phoenix behavior by flight crews,
from Pittsburgh. and the two pilots was an-
According to the suit, Stein- nounced Saturday by at-
aker saw the pilot in the torneys for Steinaker and
streaming video on the her husband, also a South-
iPad and the co-pilot "with west flight attendant.
a panicked look on his The suit was originally filed
face" acknowledged that on behalf of the Steinakers,
the iPad was streaming who live in metro Phoenix,
from a camera in the bath- in an Arizona state court
room but asserted it was in October 2018 and was
a "new security and top- moved in late August to
secret security measure in- federal court in Phoenix.
stalled in all of Southwest's An attorney for the couple,
Boeing 737-800 planes." Ronald L. M. Goldman, said
The suit said Steinaker took the alleged livestreaming
a cellphone photo of the would compromise safety
iPad video, provided the by distracting crew mem-
photo with a report to bers and intrude on the
Southwest management privacy of those using the
and was warned by a su- bathroom.
pervisor to not tell anybody "The cockpit of a commer-
about the incident. cial airliner is not a play-
According to the suit, Stein- ground for peeping toms,"
aker was warned, "if this got Goldman said in a state-
out, if this went public, no ment.
one, I mean no one, would An initial version of the suit
ever fly our airline again." alleged that both spouses
Court filings by attorneys experienced discrimina-