{"id":355666,"date":"2026-02-25T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/355666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:37:10","slug":"aer-lingus-flight-attendant-accused-of-reducing-passenger-to-tears-by-not-allowing-use-of-toilet-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/355666\/","title":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus flight attendant accused of reducing passenger to tears by not allowing use of toilet \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sacked Aer Lingus<\/a> attendant has been accused of refusing to let a passenger on a delayed flight use the bathroom in a stand-off over alleged bad language from the man while boarding.<\/p>\n

One of the complainant\u2019s colleagues told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a> on Tuesday the passenger \u2013 a man in his 30s \u2013 was reduced to tears by the time he got a chance to go. <\/p>\n

By then, she confirmed to Aer Lingus\u2019s legal team, the flight was already halfway back on its journey from Marseilles to Dublin. <\/p>\n

The incident was set out in defence evidence presented by the airline in response to a complaint by the senior flight attendant, Alan O\u2019Neill, under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. <\/p>\n

Lawyers instructed by Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s trade union, F\u00f3rsa, have called into question the recollections of other cabin crew about what happened and when on Flight EI-515 on 9 April 2024. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill was the ranking member of cabin crew on the jet that day when a problem with its auxiliary power unit (APU) held up its outbound flight from Dublin, and delayed it further on the ground in France, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n

\"\"Could Simon Harris\u2019s savings scheme for the \u2018middle classes\u2019 prove to be a sound investment?<\/p>\n

Flight attendant Claire Durkan said passengers had been left to wait for the inbound jet in a part of the terminal with \u201capparently no bathrooms\u201d available.<\/p>\n

Upon boarding, one passenger asked to use the bathroom. Mr O\u2019Neill refused him on safety grounds as the plane was refuelling, she said. <\/p>\n

Then she heard the passenger saying \u201cunder his breath\u201d the words \u201coh for f***\u2019s sake\u201d. She said he didn\u2019t say it \u201cdirectly\u201d to Mr O\u2019Neill. <\/p>\n

Ms Durkan said that there would have been an opportunity between the end of refuelling and pushback where the passenger could have been let go to the lavatory. Mr O\u2019Neill did not tell the man he could, she said. <\/p>\n

After take-off, when the fasten seat belt sign was still on, the passenger got up again and tried to go to the forward bathroom, near where Mr O\u2019Neill and Ms Durkan were sitting in jump seats, the tribunal heard. He was sent back by Mr O\u2019Neill, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n

Another member of the cabin crew, Joan O\u2019Gorman, said it was \u201cstrange that he [Mr O\u2019Neill] wasn\u2019t letting [the passenger] go\u201d. The light for the forward bathroom on the jet was \u201cdefinitely green\u201d when he got up, she said.<\/p>\n

She said it was \u201cstrange that he [Mr O\u2019Neill] wasn\u2019t letting [the passenger] go\u201d. The light for the forward bathroom on the jet was \u201cdefinitely green\u201d when he got up, she said. <\/p>\n

After that, Ms Durkan said, Mr O\u2019Neill went to the passenger and told him: \u201cYou can\u2019t go to the toilet. I\u2019ll tell you whenever you can go to the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s written account of the incident stated that the passenger initially \u201ctried to push past me on boarding to use the toilet during fuelling\u201d. <\/p>\n

After \u201ctwo verbal warnings\u201d, Mr O\u2019Neill and the captain agreed the passenger should be served a \u201cDip 1 form\u201d \u2013 a written warning to a disruptive passenger, the statement added. <\/p>\n

Ms Durkan said Mr O\u2019Neill wanted her to get the passenger\u2019s boarding card to take his name for the Dip 1. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The passenger] said he wasn\u2019t giving me [his] boarding pass unless he \u2018can go to the toilet\u2019,\u201d Ms Durkan said. <\/p>\n

She returned to Mr O\u2019Neill and told him this. Mr O\u2019Neill told her: \u201cHe won\u2019t be allowed to go to the toilet unless he gives the boarding pass,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The seat belt light remained on during this time and the passenger had yet to use the bathroom when they started the trolley service, she said. <\/p>\n

Asked how long had elapsed, Ms Durkan said \u201cabout 45, 50 minutes\u201d, but then said \u201cthat might sound a little bit too long\u201d. <\/p>\n

Jason Murray BL, for the complainant, said it might have been \u201cas short as 10\u201d minutes. \u201cThe witness doesn\u2019t know,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Gorman\u2019s further evidence was that it was \u201csomewhere between 45 minutes and an hour\u201d when the passenger came to the back of the plane and used the aft right lavatory. <\/p>\n

She agreed with counsel for the airline Tom Mallon BL that this was \u201chalfway through the flight\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI could see him coming down the aisle. He was crying,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Mr Mallon asked: \u201cIn your 10 years of flying have you ever observed \u2013 [this was] a man in his 30s, a youngish man, but a mature male \u2013 have you observed men of that age crying because of an interaction with cabin crew?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. No,\u201d Ms O\u2019Gorman said. <\/p>\n

The case is continuing for two more days this week before adjudication officer Michael MacNamee. Mr O\u2019Neill is not expected to give evidence until later in the year. <\/p>\n

Mr Mallon is instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox in the matter. Mr Murray is instructed by Jennifer McCarthy of Daniel Spring & Co. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sacked Aer Lingus attendant has been accused of refusing to let a passenger on a delayed flight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2442,79,18,19,17,80,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-355666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-work","14":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116131780648629322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355666","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=355666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}