Lawsuit claims ‘peeping Tom’ Southwest pilots hid camera in plane’s toilet and streamed video to iPad in cockpit
- Southwest says the 2017 incident was an ‘inappropriate attempt at humour’
- Flight attendant who reported incident says she has been subject to retaliation by airline
Two Southwest Airlines pilots allegedly hid a camera in a plane’s lavatory and live-streamed the video to an iPad mounted on the windshield of the cockpit aboard a flight, according to a lawsuit filed by a flight attendant.
The pilots recorded video of passengers and crew members aboard the February 2017 flight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Phoenix, Arizona, according to the lawsuit filed in Arizona state court last year and recently transferred to federal court.
In a statement on Sunday, Southwest denied that it places cameras in its aircraft lavatories and said that the 2017 incident was an “inappropriate attempt at humour”.
In the suit, flight attendant Renee Steinaker alleges that she saw an iPad streaming video from the plane’s forward lavatory when she entered the cockpit about 2½ hours into Flight 1088.
The captain, Terry Graham, had asked her to come into the cockpit so that he could use the lavatory. Southwest Airlines protocol requires a second person in the cockpit at all times.
Steinaker saw the pilot in the streaming video on the iPad mounted on the windshield left of the flight captain’s seat, according to the lawsuit.