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Tribunal hears of second word error to hit Aer Lingus disciplinary report
Summary
A senior Aer Lingus manager, Captain Conor Barrett, has explained that a second error in a disciplinary investigation report, which appeared to support a pilot later demoted by the airline, was due to a spelling mistake. The error occurred in a passage where he wrote: "A review of the safety manual and the operating manual indicates a strong structure to believe this viewpoint." This was in reference to the view of pilot Declan McCabe, who argued that the company safety manual allowed him to use his judgment to file a report after an incident on a flight into Dublin airport. Captain Barrett clarified that the word 'believe' was a mistake and should have been 'belie'. Earlier, a typographical error had also been highlighted by adjudicator John Harraghy as significant and unexplained. On Wednesday, Barrett stated that when he used the word 'belies' elsewhere in the report, he meant something different. The tribunal was hearing the 11th day of evidence in a whistleblower penalisation claim brought by McCabe.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Tribunal hears of second word error to hit Aer Lingus disciplinary report. Procedural stage: hearing_or_decision
When:
- 8 June Other
- 2026-06-18 Publication
Why: A senior Aer Lingus manager has said that a second passage in a disciplinary investigation report, where he again seems to side with a pilot later demoted by the airline, only reads that way because he used the wrong word a second time. CNI source report
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