{"id":462478,"date":"2026-05-22T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462478\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:06:08","slug":"aer-lingus-executive-takes-exception-to-sacked-pilots-claim-of-falsifying-safety-report-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462478\/","title":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus executive takes \u2018exception\u2019 to sacked pilot\u2019s claim of \u2018falsifying\u2019 safety report \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior executive at Aer Lingus<\/a> has told a tribunal that he takes \u201cexception\u201d to a sacked pilot\u2019s allegation that other senior managers at the airline engaged in \u201cfalsifying\u201d an air safety report. <\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s chief operating officer, Adrian Dunne, was under cross-examination again on Friday as the airline continued its defence against complaints of whistleblower penalisation and unfair dismissal by the pilot, ex-A320 captain Tom O\u2019Riordan. <\/p>\n

He claims he was \u201cpoisoned\u201d by toxic fumes while in command of an Aer Lingus jet, EI-DEN, on an empty ferry flight in June 2023 and took to social media in an \u201cawareness campaign\u201d when his concerns about \u201cfume events\u201d were not addressed by the airline. <\/p>\n

He was sacked for breaches of the airline\u2019s social media policy.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan had alleged two senior managers at the airline, Colm Wynne, a senior managing pilot, and Conor Nolan, the airline\u2019s director of safety and security, had \u201cfalsified\u201d an air safety report on the EI-DEN incident, the tribunal has heard. <\/p>\n

This was on the basis the report was filed under O\u2019Riordan\u2019s name when he was recovering in hospital, having told the airline he was unable to make it, his legal team has told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a>. <\/p>\n

David Byrnes, for O\u2019Riordan, questioned Dunne, the airline\u2019s chief operating officer further on Friday on a July 30th, 2024 disciplinary appeal meeting the witness held with his client. <\/p>\n

Dunne denied that he \u201cignored and refused to engage\u201d with O\u2019Riordan when the complainant told him the disciplinary charges against him were \u201cpenalisation for speaking out\u201d. <\/p>\n

The witness said that he was hearing an appeal \u201cexactly on the facts\u201d of the disciplinary process which decided that O\u2019Riordan was to be dismissed for \u201cinfringement of our social media<\/a> policy\u201d. <\/p>\n

Counsel put it to Dunne that when O\u2019Riordan again brought up his allegation that the air safety report was \u201cfalsified\u201d at the appeal meeting, the witness\u2019s response was: \u201cThat is a completely false allegation on your behalf.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve no evidence to support that, do you?\u201d counsel said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe run an airline where systems and processes are in place, that\u2019s my evidence,\u201d Mr Dunne replied. \u201cI believe in the system, and that it works,\u201d the executive said. <\/p>\n

Byrnes put it to him he was \u201cshowing no interest\u201d in \u201cserious issues\u201d being raised by his client, and Dunne reiterated that he was \u201cthere to hear an appeal about social media breaches\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to tolerate my client making serious allegations against senior people in Aer Lingus,\u201d counsel said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do take exception to allegations against my colleagues,\u201d Dunne said. <\/p>\n

Nolan said in evidence last year that a committee of senior managers at Aer Lingus reviewed O\u2019Riordan\u2019s allegation when O\u2019Riordan first raised it internally, and concluded there was \u201cno forgery or falsification\u201d. <\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s safety office had a 72-hour window to inform the Irish Aviation Authority<\/a> of such events and thought Mr O\u2019Riordan would take part later, Mr Nolan said. <\/p>\n

Adjudicator Aideen Collard has adjourned the matter to later in the year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior executive at Aer Lingus has told a tribunal that he takes \u201cexception\u201d to a sacked pilot\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,72,61,60,14647,58,1962,6465],"class_list":["post-462478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aer-lingus","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-aviation-authority","tag-social-media","tag-work","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}