{"id":628124,"date":"2026-09-18T02:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628124\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T02:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:58:13","slug":"aer-lingus-pilot-says-subterfuge-on-safety-report-an-effort-to-mislead-the-authorities-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628124\/","title":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus pilot says \u2018subterfuge\u2019 on safety report \u2018an effort to mislead the authorities\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Aer Lingus<\/a> pilot sacked for taking to social media in an \u201cawareness campaign\u201d about alleged toxic fume leaks on passenger jets has branded the actions of company management \u201can attack on safety in aviation\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said he believed the airline\u2019s safety management processes were \u201ccompromised\u201d and that there had been an attempt to \u201cmislead the authorities\u201d about an alleged incident on a ferry flight on July 5th, 2023, in which he claimed he was \u201cpoisoned\u201d by a fume leak.<\/p>\n

Veteran Airbus A320 pilot Tom O\u2019Riordan concluded his primary evidence on Thursday at the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) after testifying for four days. He was sacked in 2024 after 14 months off sick.<\/p>\n

He has accused the airline of penalising him as a whistleblower for reporting his concerns. <\/p>\n

A series of online posts for which O\u2019Riordan was subject to disciplinary action were made between mid-March and mid-June 2024, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n

They included a number of internal Aer Lingus files, along with correspondence pertaining to the disciplinary process and letters he had received from managers. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan told the WRC he had not been satisfied with the conclusion reached by the airline when it closed off the air safety report into the flight on June 5th, 2023, in August that year. He said this was done without his involvement and did not go beyond stating that the fumes were down to an \u201coil leak\u201d. <\/p>\n

At the end of April 2024, O\u2019Riordan received a maintenance report on an engine that was removed from the aircraft involved in the June 5th flight and sent for maintenance at an Iberia Air maintenance facility in Madrid, which was furnished to him by Conor Nolan, the director of safety and security at Aer Lingus. <\/p>\n

It was after he had pursued a grievance challenging the company on its level of engagement with him and raised issues about his name being attributed to an air safety report filed on the flight. <\/p>\n

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

O\u2019Riordan said he did not agree with the conclusion reached by that report that the leak had been the result of \u201cwear on the gaskets\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese engines are highly inspected. Any wear should have been detected in advance of this,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan told the WRC on Thursday that on February 24th, 2024, he used an online aviation safety portal run by the European Air Safety Authority (EASA) to make a report. It was one of a number of contacts he made to outside agencies around that time, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI told them about my fume event and fume issues on Aer Lingus aircraft,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn one Aer Lingus aircraft?\u201d his barrister David Byrnes asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, on many,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. \u201cI had in my possession an internal report from Aer Lingus, what\u2019s called a safety plan progress report I was furnished by a captain in Aer Lingus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[This] highlighted there had been 22 fume events between January 2022 and January 2023,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said he believed his disclosure to EASA had prompted an emergency airworthiness directive on March 9th, 2024. <\/p>\n

That would have had the effect of grounding a number of Aer Lingus Airbus A320 airliners if the airline had not already taken them out of service the night before, the tribunal was previously told. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was numerous aircraft grounded, numerous engines had to be replaced at short notice, at a cost of millions,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

He said that a \u201cthorough root cause analysis\u201d of the June 5th flight would have \u201cled us to the seal that was the subject of the EASA emergency airworthiness directive\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said his belief was that the actual cause of the leak was the failure of a labyrinth seal in the engine system caused by damage from an induction lamp used during maintenance at the Iberia workshop. <\/p>\n

He said there was \u201csubterfuge\u201d about filing an air safety report about the June 5th flight, in that his name was attached to it as the reporter. <\/p>\n

He said his understanding was that the report had in fact been filled out by Colm Wynne, a safety manager in flight operations, on foot of details supplied by the first officer. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said he did not understand why the first officer had not been left to file the report. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would have to question why it was done, because it wasn\u2019t necessary. I have to draw the inference that there was an effort to mislead the authorities,\u201d he said. He added that he regarded Aer Lingus\u2019s safety management system as \u201ccompromised\u201d. <\/p>\n

Byrnes later opened another document O\u2019Riordan had shared in the course of his online \u201cawareness campaign\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said it was an internal Aer Lingus document dating from January 2020, which he said was not promulgated to flight crew. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows Aer Lingus have known all this time about the manifest danger of fumes on aircraft,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think about this document and that Aer Lingus knew about this issue since 2020. Why is Aer Lingus not warning passengers and crew about the danger to their lives?\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

The 2020 document included \u201codour descriptors for oil and hydraulic fumes\u201d and stated that these \u201cmay contaminate the downstream vent ducting and the air carried to the cabin or flight deck\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said his understanding was that any such contaminant would \u201cremain in the system unless properly dealt with and continue to poison passengers, general public and crew\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at the safety data sheets for the oil used to lubricate Aer Lingus engines, it states it\u2019s suspected of damaging fertility and the unborn child,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Tom Mallon, for Aer Lingus instructed by Arthur Cox LLP, objected and said that had not been put to his witness. Byrnes said he was \u201cnot going down that road\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said the same document urged \u201ccontinuous vigilance\u201d for \u201csuspect fumes, smoke, visible haze\u201d on aircraft. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat were you trained to do if you picked up on an odour of smoke or smelly socks?\u201d Byrnes asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe received no training on fumes at all,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou heard Conor Nolan say he doesn\u2019t think the public should be informed,\u201d Mr Byrnes said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was his testimony,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s your concern there?\u201d counsel asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cAer Lingus knows about this. Why can\u2019t the passengers know?\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

Nolan\u2019s evidence to the WRC had been that O\u2019Riordan had been wrong to share \u201cconfidential internal safety, engineering and operational data\u201d, referring to the report on the repairs to the engine removed from the jet involved in the flight on June 5th, 2023. <\/p>\n

This was on the basis that material of that nature \u201cviewed out of context by unqualified members of the public\u201d had the potential to damage Aer Lingus\u2019s reputation, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the wrong hands, it could be misconstrued as presenting some sort of safety risk,\u201d the witness said. <\/p>\n

The airline wholly denies putting any passengers, staff or aircrew at risk. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had reported to external agencies, reported internally, and now the attempts to shut me down in public were an attempt to mask the real imminent and manifest danger,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s very, very dangerous. One of the barriers against accidents and incidents and dangers in aviation is the crew\u2019s ability to speak up about threats, and any attempt to shut that down is an attack on safety in aviation,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan has now concluded his evidence-in-chief. The case continues on Friday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Aer Lingus pilot sacked for taking to social media in an \u201cawareness campaign\u201d about alleged toxic fume…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,72,61,60,6465],"class_list":["post-628124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aer-lingus","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628124","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=628124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}