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(CNN) - A Southwest Airlines flight attendant says two pilots watched a live video stream from a hidden camera in the bathroom of a commercial plane to an iPad in the cabin, a lawsuit says.
The alleged incident occurred on February 27, 2017, while Renee Steinaker was working on flight 1088 from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, according to the complaint that Steinaker and her husband, David Steinaker, filed against the airline and the pilots.
Approximately two and a half hours after the flight, Captain Terry Graham asked for a flight attendant to approach the cabin so he could go to the bathroom, the complaint says. The airline's policy requires that two crew members be in the cabin at all times, the complaint says.
After Steinaker arrived and Graham left, Steinaker saw an iPad in the cockpit of the plane that appeared to be showing live video transmission of the pilot inside an airplane's bathroom, according to the lawsuit.
When the flight attendant asked the co-pilot, Ryan Russell, if the iPad was transmitting video from the bathroom, he said the camera was part of a "new secret security measure that had been installed in the Southwest Airlines 'toilets' 737-800 aircraft “, Alleges the document.
Russell asked him not to tell anyone about the cameras because it was in the "secret," the lawsuit says.
The pilots and the airline respond
In their written response to the complaint, Graham and Russell admit that Graham's iPad was located in the cabin and that Steinaker asked if it was a live broadcast from the bathroom. But the pilots deny the other accusations or say they don't have enough knowledge to respond.
CNN has contacted lawyers representing Russell and Graham.
In its written response, Southwest denied that Graham or Russell “intentionally invaded Plaintiff Renee Steinaker's privacy on Southwest Airlines flight 1088 by installing, viewing, watching, recording and / or playing the plaintiff's recordings while using the toilet of the front bath ”.
When CNN contacted on Saturday, a Southwest Airlines spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said the airline does not place cameras in the plane's bathrooms.
“The safety of our employees and customers is the inflexible priority of Southwest. As such, Southwest does not place cameras in the bathrooms of our aircraft, ”the spokesman told CNN.
The lawsuit was filed in Maricopa County, Arizona, but was transferred to the United States District Court in Arizona. The Steinakers are suing the airline and pilots for invasion of privacy, causing emotional distress, sexual harassment and reprisals by Renee Steinaker. They look for at least US $ 50,000 in damages.
The lawsuit says Southwest tried to silence flight attendants
Steinaker says he took a picture of the iPad with Graham's image in the bathroom, the lawsuit says, and showed it to the rest of the flight attendants. CNN has not seen the photo mentioned in the lawsuit.
The flight attendant says that a supervisor ordered her to reserve the incident for herself because "if this were made public, nobody, I mean nobody, would fly our airline again," the lawsuit said.
After Steinaker and other flight attendants on flight 1088 reported the incident to the airline management, according to the lawsuit, the airline tried to silence and intimidate them.
They were randomly tested for drugs and alcohol and one of them had to do multiple drug tests in a "very short period of time," according to the lawsuit.
Steinaker's husband, David, who is also a flight attendant, was “subjected to at least five performance audits within a few months after the incident, when in his previous twenty-four (years) of service, he had only had approximately three audits, ”claimed the lawsuit.
In its written response, Southwest also denies those accusations about how the airline treated the Steinakers after the alleged incident.
Ronald Goldman, a lawyer representing the Steinakers, said the behavior of the pilots distracts the crew members and compromises flight safety.
"The cockpit of a commercial plane is not a playground for spies," Goldman told CNN. "Every day that these two pilots are allowed to fly for the airline is another day that our client fears he will have to work with the pilots who, according to her, have caused him significant damage."
Goldman said that Renee Steinaker lost several days of work and became physically ill after worrying that she could have been observed and possibly recorded while using the bathroom.
Southwest
