A Virgin Atlantic captain who says he was unfairly forced out of his job after rumours circulated that he had taken ’40 winks’ during a long haul flight is claiming £1.7m compensation.
Mike Lawson, 48, claims the airline took action against him following a Heathrow to Hong Kong flight in September 2015, during which both his co-pilots fell sick.
With eight hours still to go, Cpt Lawson decided against aborting and instead flew on alone, landing safely after one of his colleagues recovered.
Captain Mike Lawson is suing Virgin Atlantic for £1.7million in compensation over a lost career
Afterwards, ‘completely unfounded’ rumours circulated, including that he had taken ’40 winks’ while his colleagues were indisposed and away from the flight deck.
Cpt Lawson said the airline’s failure to publish a report into the incident meant he could not defend himself against the rumours.
Eventually, he was fired in May 2017, with Virgin citing his failure to pass two flight simulator tests in 2016 as the reason.
He is now suing for £1.7m over his dismissal, claiming the test assessor was ‘unnecessarily aggressive’ towards him because of the airline’s hostile stance following the Hong Kong flight.
He is also claiming for disability discrimination on the basis that he was mentally unwell due to stress and anxiety at the time he took the tests – caused in part by his inability to defend himself against the rumours.
His disability claim was thrown out by an employment tribunal in January last year, but was reinstated by Judge Matthew Gullick at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London.
Setting out his case, Judge Gullick said Cpt Lawson’s ‘whole identity was tightly linked with being a pilot for Virgin,’ having enjoyed a 19-year career with the airline.
The tribunal heard that Cpt Lawson was piloting a Virgin plane from Heathrow to Hong Hong in September 2015 when both of his co-pilots fell violently sick at the same time, leaving him alone in charge of the jet.
‘Mr Lawson decided to continue the flight rather than land en route and he landed the aircraft safely in Hong Kong,’ said the judge.
‘But he says the incident gave rise to rumours and gossip among his colleagues.
‘Such rumours were untrue, but nevertheless his colleagues were reluctant to work with him.’
His employers mounted an investigation into the events during the flight and Mr Lawson says he began suffering from stress and anxiety soon after, the judge said.
He was ‘stood down’ from flying duties between October and November 2015, but ‘he was not told that he had done anything wrong and was not placed under any restrictions.’
The pilot insists that he was forced out of the company after a flight to Hong Kong in 2015
However, Virgin Atlantic did not publish a report about the investigation, leaving him plagued with anxiety because ‘he felt he could not defend himself against the rumours.’
‘He says he felt stressed and anxious when he heard of the rumours which were frequently brought up, especially in a meeting on 13 October 2015 when he was asked if he had taken ’40 winks while the FO’s [flight officers] were out of the flight deck?’.
‘He describes feeling ostracised by his colleagues and becoming increasingly isolated, feeling his colleagues were avoiding speaking to him, fearing any association with him,’ said the judge.
‘He felt that in conversations with his flight crew he was being criticised, which made him doubt he was making the right decisions.
‘He said he dreaded going to work knowing the Hong Kong flight would be brought up by colleagues.’
Cpt Lawson, who has since found a job with another airline, alleges unfair dismissal and disability discrimination, claiming he was mentally unwell at the time of the tests and his bosses should have considered retraining and re-testing him.
‘He says the process was rigged against him because (Virgin Atlantic Airways) had decided to get rid of him after the events of September 2015,’ said the judge.
However, Virgin claims that Cpt Lawson was legitimately dismissed and denies his accusations, as well as contesting his claim that he was disabled at the time of the tests.
Virgin dismiss the pilot’s claims that an assessor was ‘aggressive’ toward him during testing
The airline claims that Cpt Lawson, who lives near Brighton, ‘exaggerated’ some of his symptoms and that his claims are not ‘corroborated by the medical evidence.’
The case went before an employment tribunal in January last year when his disability claim was thrown out on the basis that he was not disabled at the time of the tests.
However, he appealed and in a recent ruling Judge Gullick overturned the decision and ordered that his disability claim be reinstated and heard in full again with the unfair dismissal claim.
‘The case will be remitted and the tribunal will rehear the issue as to whether Mr Lawson was a disabled person,’ he said.
No date was set for the case to return to the employment tribunal.