“A former Southwest Airlines pilot pleaded guilty on Friday,” May 28, 2021, to committing “a lewd, indecent, or obscene act” while flying a commercial jet, ABC News reported (here).
During a flight from Philadelphia to Orlando in August 2020, the 60-year-old captain removed “his clothes in the cockpit and exposed himself to the female first officer.”
“He then proceeded to view pornographic material in the cockpit on a laptop.” According to federal prosecutors, he “further engaged in inappropriate conduct in the cockpit as the First Officer continued to perform her duties as an assigned aircrew member,” which presumably means she was flying the plane, as he obviously wasn’t.
Under the plea agreement, he was fined $5,000 and given a year’s probation, which seems light to me, even taking into account that planes largely fly themselves these days. Maybe that was the problem: Boredom because there was nothing else to do.
The FAA used to force airline pilots to retire at age 60, but that was raised to 65 in 2008, so this guy still had 5 more years of career ahead of him, if he wanted it. Apparently he didn’t.
Photo: Artist’s depiction of what the former pilot might be doing now (note: neither of these individuals is him)