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A Federal Court ruled that flight attendants can refuse to fly with a pilot they consider to be suicidally depressed.
The case, brought against Air Canada by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, stems from an Aug. 24, 2008, incident at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
Four flight attendants who were to crew the flight from Toronto to Paris refused to fly after their supervisor alleged that the pilot on a previous occasion had threatened to ditch the plane into the Atlantic.
The flight attendants who refused to work prepared a written explanation of their health and safety concern, which read: "Hugh Bouchard (the in charge flight attendant) advised us that he had had an in flight incident where the captain had threatened to ditch the plane in the Atlantic. Hugh said that the captain had said he had nothing to lose as he was being fired, anyway."
According to court documents, a health and safety officer from Human Resources and Social Development Canada was called to the airport to investigate and characterized the incident in her preliminary report as a "conflict between the captain and the chief steward" that was a "normal working condition of employment," rather than a security issue.
But Justice John O'Keefe said such a finding was not valid without an immediate, full-blown investigation as stipulated in the Canada Labour Code the wording of which states that in such a case, a health and safety officer must investigate whether a potential danger goes beyond normal working conditions.
Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick insisted that the safety of the flight was never compromised since there was no credible evidence that the captain had ever issued such a threat. The captain of the plane continues to work for the company.
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