Ryanair fires its chief pilot for "inappropriate behaviour" with female junior pilots

MADRID, 15 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Ryanair has fired its chief pilot, Aidan Murray, 58, after a group of junior pilots filed numerous complaints alleging sexual harassment against him.

Ryanair has informed its staff that Murray's dismissal is the result of an investigation carried out in recent days, which has detected a pattern of "repeated, inappropriate and unacceptable" behavior towards a number of junior female pilots, who violates the company's anti-harassment policy.

For this reason, he informed him of his dismissal through an email in recent days "with immediate effect". "We are determined to ensure that all our people come to work in a safe and secure environment. We ask all of you to respect the privacy and integrity of those brave people who offered to help us in this investigation," the airline said in the statement. statement to which the British media Daily Mail has had access.

The Irish airline has assured in statements to Europa Press that "it does not comment on cases of individual employees."

The investigation involves several female trainee pilots who were allegedly "sexually harassed and coerced" by Murray. He would ask women to send him photos of his body and he would reply with sexual comments like "you have a great body" or "nice ass".

According to the British media, Murray modified the shift lists of her colleagues to be able to work with them in the cockpit, and the alleged inappropriate behavior would have taken place in the last 12 to 18 months.

Ryanair has advised the complainants and one of them has left the company, while another has asked to be transferred to another place and two others have changed their work shifts. "The four of them were in a difficult situation and he took advantage of it. They were young and had invested a lot of money in their training," according to a source quoted by the Daily Mail.

The airline has declined to make any kind of official statement in this regard at this time. In these cases, the judicial process takes a while to develop with allegations and evidence provided by both parties, so with the more advanced process it is likely that more details on the matter will be known.

Murray has been a pilot for 30 years and has worked at Ryanair in various roles for over 26 years. Murray would now have a few days to appeal the decision to terminate his employment with the airline for which he has worked for nearly 3 decades.