{"id":626804,"date":"2026-09-16T21:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626804\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T21:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:04:12","slug":"lets-see-how-long-before-he-posts-this-iaa-boss-accidentally-includes-aer-lingus-pilot-in-email-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626804\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Let\u2019s see how long before he posts this\u2019: IAA boss accidentally includes Aer Lingus pilot in email \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of the Irish Aviation Authority<\/a> (IAA) accidentally sent an Aer Lingus captain \u2013 who claims he was \u201cpoisoned\u201d by a fume leak \u2013 an internal email remarking on the pilot\u2019s social media activity after a query about the reporting of the incident, a tribunal has heard. <\/p>\n

Details of the correspondence were disclosed at the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) on Wednesday as the pilot, Tom O\u2019Riordan, continued his evidence in his whistleblower penalisation case against the airline. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan claims Aer Lingus<\/a> knowingly endangered his life on June 5th, 2023, by directing him to fly an Airbus A320 jet, EI-DEN, on an empty flight from London to Dublin on that date.<\/p>\n

He says he was \u201cpoisoned\u201d by oil contaminating the cabin air and suffered a brain injury. \u201cI thought I was going to die,\u201d he told the WRC in his evidence this week. <\/p>\n

The airline strongly denies any passengers or crew, including O\u2019Riordan, were put at risk. <\/p>\n

The complainant had been engaged in an \u201cawareness campaign\u201d on X, Instagram and Facebook since March 2024 under the username \u201cToxicAer\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing was being done, so I had to inform the general public and the crew directly by the best means that I could,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Soaring energy costs and why \u2018we can\u2019t protect everyone from the impact of war\u2019<\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan\u2019s evidence was that he hoped the Oireachtas would call a hearing on airliner fume events. <\/p>\n

He said his petition was considered at a preliminary stage, but got no further. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan\u2019s social media posts prompted warnings from senior Aer Lingus managers, with disciplinary action following from March 2024, the WRC heard. <\/p>\n

On July 12th, 2024, O\u2019Riordan was facing a third and final set of disciplinary charges over the posts when he emailed the IAA\u2019s head of flight operations, Pearse McCrann, seeking confirmation that Aer Lingus had submitted a report to the regulator concerning the flight, his barrister, David Byrnes, said. <\/p>\n

At the hearing, Byrnes then opened the next email in the series received by his client, dated July 29th, 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see how long before he posts this online. This could be useful at the Oireachtas, as we could refute his incorrect assertion that Aer Lingus never reported it within time frame,\u201d Byrnes said, quoting from the email. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said the author of the email was \u201cDeclan Fitzpatrick … he\u2019s CEO [chief executive] of the IAA\u201d. <\/p>\n

He wrote again the following month asking what was meant by the email \u2013 telling the regulators\u2019 staff he considered it \u201calarming\u201d and seeking an apology. <\/p>\n

\u201cDeclan may well consider his position,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said in the email. <\/p>\n

The WRC heard Fitzpatrick replied on August 8th, saying: \u201cDear Tom, you were not the intended recipient of this email, which was sent to you in error.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CEO also said the IAA was continuing to investigate O\u2019Riordan\u2019s protected disclosure and that McCrann would respond \u201cin due course\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said he had yet to hear further on the matter. He was dismissed that month, with the sanction confirmed on appeal. <\/p>\n

Tom Mallon, for Aer Lingus, has said the airline was entitled to dismiss O\u2019Riordan on foot of the disciplinary findings. O\u2019Riordan\u2019s case is he was shielded by whistleblower law. <\/p>\n

The hearing continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) accidentally sent an Aer Lingus captain \u2013 who claims he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[601,42,14647,43,40,38,41,39,6465],"class_list":["post-626804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aer-lingus","tag-headlines","tag-irish-aviation-authority","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626804","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=626804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}