Travel Securely Securely Travel
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant has filed suit in which she accused two of her colleagues, pilots, of surreptitiously viewing the activities occurring in the forward lavatory of a Southwest Airlines flight.
The flight is WN1088 on 27 February 2017 from Pittsburgh to Phoenix. The allegation is that a hidden camera was placed in the lavatory and that the live-stream from the camera was transmitted to the iPad in the cockpit.
The court documents (click image to left - 84 pages pdf) detail how Renee Steinaker, one of the flight attendants on board entered the cockpit when pilot, Capt. Terry Graham went to the lavatory.
While in the cockpit, Steinaker noticed an iPad on which she was able to observe Graham’s activities in the lavatory. When she noted this to the co-pilot Ryan Russell. Russell allegedly admonished Steinaker to keep the existence of the camera to herself. He added how the camera’s were a new feature on all Southwest 737-800s.
Steinaker took a photo of the iPad’s display on her cellular phone.
When Graham returned to the cockpit he attempted to hide the iPad from Steinaker and declined to answer questions about the iPad.
What Southwest Airlines says happened
Southwest Airlines, named in the suit as a co-defendant, has stated that they have not placed video camera’s in their aircraft lavatories.
“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.”
What next?
We will have to wait to see if Steinaker’s cellphone photo every becomes public, to determine if this was a hoax or if there was indeed a camera in the lavatory.
Video Voyeurism on Flights?
Readers will remember the case of the Malaysian traveler on a United flight we wrote about in May 2019. He placed a hidden camera in the first class bathroom of his flight. Subsequent investigation detailed how he had used the same camera on an Emirates flight previously.
