An Aer Lingus pilot stripped of command duties after his aircraft failed to pick up a navigation beacon on approach to Dublin Airport in 2023 wrote that he delayed reporting the incident because he feared “retribution” from senior personnel, a tribunal has been told.
Declan McCabe (53), a pilot at the airline since 1999, is pursuing complaints under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Payment of Wages Act 1997 against Aer Lingus Ltd, following his demotion from captain on foot of a disciplinary process
The complaints are denied by the airline.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr McCabe said that on June 8th, 2023, he and his first officer were flying an Airbus A320neo jet with 154 passengers and cabin crew on board into Dublin Airport when the aircraft “didn’t capture” a radio beacon giving the approach vector to their assigned runway.
READ MORE
“The weather was clear; we could see the runway. If it was in cloud, you might consider doing a missed approach, come back around and complete the approach again,” he said. After passing the expected beacon line, he turned the plane back to intercept the beacon, got the signal, and landed safely, he said.
Asked why he did not report the incident, he said the Aer Lingus manual only made it mandatory to report a “false localiser capture”, which might occur if the radio signal was distorted and falsely indicated the wrong vector, he said.
“What I did on the day was what I was supposed to do, and that’s written in the manual,” he said. “In my judgment, there was no area where safety was compromised,” he said.
The tribunal heard that Capt Colm Wynne, a senior managing pilot at the airline, made contact with Mr McCabe by email eight days later, attaching correspondence from the State air traffic agency, Air Nav Ireland, on the beacon incident, and asking Mr McCabe to “advise me so I can respond”.
Mr McCabe said he wrote directly to Air Nav Ireland and told the hearing he did not include Capt Wynne in his reply – only later filing a safety report at the request of another manager.
Mr McCabe agreed when questioned by his barrister, David Byrnes, who appeared instructed by Setanta Solicitors, that there was “no love lost” between himself and Capt Wynne.
The complainant said Capt Wynne had chaired a disciplinary process which led to an “outrageous” finding that he had shown “total disregard” for the airline’s commercial interests by reporting that he was too fatigued to fly on a date in July 2011, and recommended demotion.
When Mr McCabe’s filed the internal report on the 2023 incident, he wrote: “The report was delayed because I fear further retribution from certain flight operations personnel.”
Tom Mallon, appearing for the airline instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox, said: “Aer Lingus makes no apologies whatsoever for putting safety first, and that Mr McCabe was demoted on foot of a full internal process.
Adjudicator John Harraghy has adjourned the matter overnight. The case is scheduled to continue on Wednesday and for three more days next week.
