Originally Posted by
MurphyWasRight
What does not make sense to me in the whole story is why when confronted one of the pilots did not simply say "gotcha" and explain how the prank was done.
Had they done that I doubt we would be hearing about a lawsuit.
I suspect that the pilots did admit that they had played a prank when confronted by a manager.
Much of the hazing and tomfoolery that was traditional in the flying business years ago has succumbed to the inevitable march of political correctness in the workplace.
One of the apparent claims in the lawsuit is that the airline didn't preserve the CVR and iPad for evidence against the pilots.
Many airlines seem to have a crew bus story about a mixed-gender flight crew where one of the pilots claimed to be harassed but the accused was saved in the hearing since the CVR circuit breaker was discreetly pulled to preserve exculpatory evidence. In some versions of the story I've heard over the years the flight does an air turnback or diverts. I've always been skeptical of these tales since in the U.S. the CVR is supposedly protected from being used for company disciplinary purposes.
On the other hand, the company iPad is fair game for inspection I believe and some idiots will inevitably find a way to put stuff on it that doesn't belong. Some airlines lock down the tablets with monitoring apps so that everything is logged, others, e.g. Delta seem to allow personal email and pictures and assume that pilots are mature enough to use the company devices prudently. Based on past experience I'm not so sure that's a good assumption.