Irish air safety authorities took “no interest” in an Aer Lingus pilot’s concerns about alleged cabin air contamination from fumes on its passenger jets, his lawyers have said.
However, within a fortnight of the pilot going to the European Air Safety Authority (EASA) with his concerns, the airline grounded half a dozen planes in anticipation of an airworthiness directive, the Workplace Relations Commission was told yesterday.
A senior executive at the airline, chief operating officer Adrian Dunne, denied there was “any link” between Mr O’Riordan’s disclosure to the EASA and the grounding of the planes as he gave evidence to the Workplace Relations Commission on Thursday, the case’s 13th day at hearing.
“Hundreds of aircraft” across the International Airlines Group (IAG) were potentially affected by the airworthiness directive, which concerned potential damage to seals and gaskets in the engines of some older Airbus A320s, the pilot’s barrister said.
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O’Riordan has told the WRC he was poisoned by toxic fumes while in command of an Airbus A320 jet on an empty ferry flight into Dublin Airport in June 2023, and suffered brain damage as a result, ending his flying career.
The tribunal has heard that one engine from the jet was removed and sent to Iberia Maintenance in Madrid for inspection. O’Riordan later posted a report on the repair online, the tribunal was told – a report Aer Lingus regarded as confidential.
During cross-examination last October, Conor Nolan, director of safety and security at the airline, said it had been discovered by Aer Lingus’s maintenance partner that the incorrect use of an induction heating machine at a facility had caused “sparks” or “arcing” found to have degraded engine components during maintenance.
However, he said it was clear from the Iberia report on the no 1 engine on O’Riordan’s flight that the root cause of the leaking seal was “normal wear and use” and no “systemic issue”.
The airline’s barrister, Tom Mallon BL, has argued that any question of the cause of the alleged fume event in June 2023 is a matter for the High Court in a personal injury case now being pursued by O’Riordan.
On 9 March 2024, an emergency airworthiness directive was issued by the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) which would have had the effect of grounding a number of Aer Lingus Airbus A320 airliners if the airline had not already taken them out of service the night before, the tribunal heard.
Thirteen days earlier, O’Riordan had made a disclosure to EASA, Byrnes said.
“My client alerted the European authorities because the Irish authorities had no interest, and when he went to European level, they did something about it – they issued an airworthiness directive,” O’Riordan’s barrister, David Byrnes BL, said,
The barrister put it to Dunne that the airworthiness directive was on “the precise issue” identified in the Iberia repair report disclosed by O’Riordan. “You know that, don’t you?” Byrnes said.
“No, I don’t know that,” Dunne said. “We became aware and took action before the EASA directive,” he said.
“I don’t believe there’s any link. I believe the EASA airworthiness directive related to the heat treatment of a shaft in the engines where there may have been arcing during the process, and hence those engines were recalled to be checked,” Dunne said.
“That’s exactly what the report from Iberia about the engine that was defective on my client’s flight. [There was] arcing which damaged the seals, allowing the contaminated air to get into the bleed system,” Byrnes said.
“It was the seals,” counsel said.
“The shaft,” Dunne said.
“The seals are the same issue, you know that,” counsel said.
“I don’t know that,” the executive replied.
Dunne accepted, when it was put to him, that Aer Lingus “anticipated” what was about to happen because the issue which prompted it arose in another company in the IAG group.
Counsel put it to the executive there was a financial cost to his client’s disclosures as Aer Lingus had to cancel flights and send jets for “serious work” in Spain.
Dunne said Iberia covered the costs, but agreed that Iberia had the same parent company as Aer Lingus, IAG.
“The dismissal was to silence him,” Byrnes said to Dunne on Thursday.
“I do not agree,” Dunne replied. He said O’Riordan was dismissed for his social media posts.
“And you wanted to stop him putting up more disclosures of the issues. Did you want him to continue?” Byrnes asked.
“I think we’ve made clear we didn’t want him to,” Dunne said.
O’Riordan was dismissed with notice in September 2024 as an Aer Lingus captain after facing a series of disciplinary charges and formal warnings about his activity on social media – culminating with findings of misconduct.
The airline maintains he was fairly sacked, while O’Riordan’s legal team argues the processes were unfair and predetermined.
Having first complained internally the previous year, O’Riordan sought for Aer Lingus to engage with staff on fume events and make payments to him estimated at €3 million by one company witness.
He said he would go on hunger strike if the airline did not comply, and gardaí were eventually called to get him out of Aer Lingus’s corporate headquarters, the tribunal was told. He began posting on social media about the issue the following week.
Byrnes is instructed by solicitor Setanta Landers in the case. Mallon is instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox.
The hearings have been adjourned and Byrnes is to continue his cross-examination of Dunne when the case resumes in May.
* This article was updated on May 6th to clarify the name of the chief operating officer as Adrian Dunne
