United Airlines has settled a two-year-old lawsuit in which it faced sexual harassment charges from a former female pilot who alleged she repeatedly found pornography hidden in the cockpits of domestic airline flights.
The Seattle Times lays out the case, in which former Capt. Lisa Stout, a 737 pilot based in Seattle, says she found pornographic pictures of women on more than 20 flights over a two year period starting in 2004. Who was putting them there? Presumably her co-pilots.
These pictures were hidden, either taped under unused ashtrays or — and I just love this — under a safety device known as the “stick shaker.” Indeed.
Each time Stout would find one, she’d record a complaint in the flight log. She alleges that United didn’t do enough to get to the bottom of who was sneaking porn into the cockpits on its domestic route.
Finally it got so bad that Stout grounded herself, saying the ordeal gave her a medical condition that prevented her from flying.
The lawsuit got ugly: United claims that Stout is essentially faking her medical condition to receive long-term disability to support a fledgling career as a painter. What does she paint? You guest it: Nudes.