{"id":299820,"date":"2026-01-23T17:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/299820\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T17:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:23:10","slug":"aer-lingus-pilot-accuses-airline-of-witch-hunt-against-him-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/299820\/","title":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus pilot accuses airline of \u2018witch hunt\u2019 against him \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pilot accused Aer Lingus <\/a>bosses of pursuing a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against him after he told colleagues that files including birth certs, private emails and police records relating to staff were openly accessible on the airline\u2019s internal computer systems, a tribunal has heard. <\/p>\n

Dale Connolly, a captain in command of the heavy Airbus A330 jetliner on Aer Lingus\u2019s transatlantic routes, has brought complaints against the airline under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991 \u2013 alleging he was penalised for blowing the whistle about a potential data breach. <\/p>\n

He is one of three pilots currently pursuing similar cases against the airline at the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC).<\/p>\n

At a hearing on Thursday Mr Connolly explained that to secure time off and preferred duties during peak season, pilots had to \u201cbid\u201d for it on a company intranet platform, with planners taking into account factors like seniority and past history of working unpopular dates. <\/p>\n

Mr Connolly said the issue first came to light after the bidding for winter leave in late 2024 closed that June and he went back to the portal to recheck his application when an issue arose. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went into the link, I ended up in a directory that [contained] spreadsheets with everyone\u2019s leave,\u201d Mr Connolly said. He said he could see some \u201cvery personal\u201d reasons his colleagues had given for their leave applications on a spreadsheet. <\/p>\n

This included colleagues in relationships with each other asking to be \u201cpaired\u201d in the holiday calendar, he said, along with details of a baby\u2019s due date and other family events for fellow staff. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of information there that I shouldn\u2019t have been exposed to,\u201d Mr Connolly said. <\/p>\n

He reported the matter to an office in the airline which attended to privacy matters, and was informed by reply in July that it was \u201ca settings issue which has been resolved\u201d and not a \u201cdata breach\u201d, the tribunal was told.<\/p>\n

Four months later, on 30th October 2024, Mr Connolly again had a problem with his roster after another bidding round, and returned to the intranet site for pilots to recheck his application. <\/p>\n

The tribunal heard he then wrote to Eoin McLaughlin, an online operations and data specialist at the airline, warning he could \u201csee files on OneDrive I\u2019m not supposed to see\u201d. <\/p>\n

As well as \u201cpersonal emails exchanged between a pilot and a TD\u201d, Mr Connolly said he had also been able to view a birth certificate and police records. \u201cSomething is messed up and in clear breach of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation),\u201d Mr Connolly continued in his email. <\/p>\n

He then filed a data breach report with the Data Protection Commissioner \u2013 and posted about what he had found in a WhatsApp group with other Aer Lingus pilots, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was alerting my colleagues, because I thought I had a legal and moral obligation to do so,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mr Connolly said he later learned another pilot was \u201csupplying screenshots\u201d from the group to Aer Lingus\u2019s chief technical pilot, Captain Paul Donnelly, who wrote to him on 31 October 2024 about what he had posted. <\/p>\n

The complainant said he felt \u201cintimidated\u201d thatMr Donnelly would involve himself and wrote to the Aer Lingus chief executive, Lynn Embleton. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feared retribution. His email doesn\u2019t read too insidious. I know it is, and I wanted her to know, and the disclosure to be protected,\u201d the complainant said. <\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s director of corporate governance and company secretary, M\u00e9adbh Gallagher, wrote to the complainant on 4th November with a view to arranging a meeting, setting out her availability in the days ahead, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n

The complainant said he had been preparing to fly out on a four-day duty to Orlando, Florida the following morning. <\/p>\n

He wrote back: \u201cSo you want my help on your time schedule after sending your dogs after me?\u201d and added: \u201cCall off your witch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was \u201cmassively frustrated\u201d with the airline\u2019s response to his concerns at that point, and later apologised to Ms Gallagher. <\/p>\n

After arriving to Dublin Airport for duty, he realised he had been replaced as captain of the flight on the roster. Upon phoning in to inquire, he said he was transferred to Mr Donnelly. <\/p>\n

A transcript of the call, quoted to the WRC, recorded Mr Donnelly telling the complainant he wanted to \u201cdiscuss the non-response to my email and the email to M\u00e9adbh Gallagher\u201d and told the complainant: \u201cYou\u2019re stood down from that flight today.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr Connolly\u2019s barrister, Niamh McGowan, said this was a suspension which cost her client roughly \u20ac1,800 in additional allowances for the flying duty. Suspension is disputed by the airline. <\/p>\n

The complainant said that during a meeting a few days later with Mr Donnelly, the senior managing pilot \u201clost his temper\u201d and \u201cshushed\u201d his trade union rep, telling her \u201cshe wasn\u2019t to talk\u201d.<\/p>\n

The complainant said that when he disputed the minutes taken by a human resources officer, Mr Donnelly accused him of making a \u201ccovert recording\u201d, which the complainant denied. Despite his denial, Mr Donnelly proceeded to make a report \u201cthat a covert recording had been undertaken\u201d, Capt Connolly said. <\/p>\n

He said that although Mr Donnelly had described the meeting as a \u201ca chat\u201d the previous day, it was later treated as a formal disciplinary investigation meeting. <\/p>\n

The claimant returned to flying duties after the meeting with Mr Donnelly, but was later given a 12-month verbal warning as a sanction. <\/p>\n

The airline decided he had broken a staff social media policy by posting about his data protection concerns in the pilots\u2019 WhatsApp group and that he had used an \u201cinappropriate tone\u201d in his email to Ms Gallagher. <\/p>\n

Mr Connolly said the warning remains live on his personnel file and has prevented him from applying for two opportunities for promotion. <\/p>\n

Tom Mallon, for the airline, argued Mr Connolly\u2019s concerns were \u201cproperly dealt with\u201d in July and November 2024. <\/p>\n

The complainant\u2019s email to Ms Gallagher was \u201cnothing short of shocking\u201d, he said, adding that the disciplinary process was limited to that email and the WhatsApp posts, which he argued \u201ccould not be protected\u201d by whistleblower shield law. <\/p>\n

Adjudicator David James Murphy has adjourned the case to a future date. His maximum jurisdiction in the matter under the disclosures legislation extends to more than \u20ac1.3 million, in view of Mr Connolly\u2019s stated \u20ac270,000-a-year pay. <\/p>\n

Ms McGowan is instructed in the matter by Thomas Cochrane of O\u2019Connor\u2019s Solicitors, on behalf of Mr Connolly\u2019s trade union, the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA). Mr Mallon is instructed by R\u00f3is\u00edn O\u2019Donoghue of Arthur Cox LLP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pilot accused Aer Lingus bosses of pursuing a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against him after he told colleagues that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2442,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-299820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115945577337701452","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}