Pilot Secretly Posted Flight Attendant’s Intimate Photos For 7 Years — United Airlines May Be Liable

A United Airlines pilot reportedly recorded his flight attendant girlfriend during layovers, posting intimate images of her online for seven years, impersonated her to solicit sex from strangers and stalked her after she ended their relationship. Police found similar material from him involving ten other women, including other United employees. The flight attendant sued United not the former pilot who did these things. Most of her theories for making the airline responsible have now been dismissed. But a federal judge has allowed one claim to continue: that the airline may have negligently supervised and retained the pilot by doing nothing for months after police told its corporate security department what they found. A United Pilot Allegedly Recorded And Impersonated A Flight Attendant Lisa Denson has worked as a United Airlines flight attendant since 2015. According to her lawsuit, she met United first officer Andrew Hill in 2016 while working a flight with him. Their relationship lasted until September 2021. The pilot invited her to travel as a nonrev on trips he worked, and they stayed together in hotel rooms United paid for during his layovers. She she sent him intimate photos but says it was on the condition they remain private. She says he secretly recorded them having sex and filmed her undressing from her United uniform without her knowledge. In 2017 she says discovered that he’d had posted images and videos of her to Reddit using the name “TinkGoneWild.” She confronted him, and he told her that he had removed the material and would stop, and they continued dating. The flight attendant says the relationship became abusive. She finally ended it in 2021 after discovering he was cheating with several other United employees. She alleges he called and texted relentlessly, appeared uninvited at her home, peered through her windows, left flowers and showed up at an event she attended. She began changing the flights she bid for to avoid working with him. But she didn’t report this to United while it was happening. Police Found Years Of Images And Fake Profiles In January 2024 another former United flight attendant complained to police in Cedar City, Utah that someone had spent more than a decade creating profiles in her name, distributing intimate images on sites including AdultFriendFinder and Reddit, and sending strangers to contact her for sex by phone and at work. One fake Kik account allegedly presented her as having rape fantasies. Investigators traced the IP addresses to the pilot’s internet connection. They found numerous images and videos of flight attendant Denson on porn sites, Reddit and Facebook. According to the lawsuit: The pilot had allegedly posted the material regularly from 2017 – April 2024. Some posts named Denson, identified her as a United flight attendant or showed her partially nude in uniform. He allegedly impersonated her online and used her identity and images to solicit sex. Investigators found intimate material involving ten other women, some of them United employees. The Utah criminal prosecution involved the other former flight attendant, not Denson. Hill pleaded guilty in October 2024 to eight felony counts of distributing pornography, one count of stalking and one count of sexual extortion. He received a sentence of zero to five years, with the judge recommending that he serve the full five years. Police Then Warned United, But They Allegedly Did Nothing On April 23, 2024, Utah authorities served United with a warrant seeking Hill’s employment information, flight records, travel and hotel records, and related evidence. Denson alleges the detective contacted an investigative manager in United Corporate Security and told him what had transpired, but that United didn’t contact her, warn other employees, investigate the pilot, place him on leave or remove him from service. The complaint also alleges the investigator falsely claimed United notified Denson and provided her with support resources. United, though, says the detective didn’t identify Denson, that the pilot was arrested and removed from service then and never flew for them again. Her complaint says United only fired after efforts to save his job through the pilots union failed (which is exactly what you’d expect, but raises separate questions of its own). Most Of The Case Got Dismissed Three out of four of the flight attendants claims have been dismissed without prejudice. Hostile work environment: She didn’t report Hill while the alleged harassment and image distribution were occurring. She alleges United learned about it in April 2024, he stopped doing it that month, and the fact that coworkers were asking her about the criminal case didn’t constitute a severe or pervasive sex-based hostile work environment. Federal intimate image claim: It’s illegal to disclose the images, but United isn’t liable for the pilot having done that since it wasn’t part of his job. Colorado intimate image claim:United paid for the layover hotel rooms, and the pilot may have used company-provided electronics, but that doesn’t make the airline liable for his criminal conduct. What’s Left Of The Case The judge allowed negligent supervision and retention claims to for events after police contacted the airline in April 2024, claiming: United Corporate Security received specific notice that a current pilot allegedly had distributed intimate images of Denson and other United flight attendants. United allegedly left him in place for another two or three months without contacting Denson, investigating him or placing him on leave. Denson alleged injuries during that period – need to change her work schedule to avoid him, taking days off and suffering additional workplace and emotional harm. At this stage, which was a motion to dismiss, the judge treats allegations like these as true and they’re enough to suggest United had a duty to act and potentially breached that duty by responding too slowly. So the case gets to discovery. What Surprised Me About This Case When I first reported this lawsuit a year ago, I expected United to argue that Hill was a coworker rather than a Title VII supervisor, that Denson had never used the airline’s reporting channels, and that his private criminal acts were outside the scope of his employment. That’s basically what happened. I managed to identify the legal precedent that was United’s strongest authority knocking out employer liability for distributing these images. However, I thought United might get negligent supervision and retention dismissed, on the theory that United didn’t actually receive notice of the conduct until after the alleged image distribution had stopped and because the pilot’s criminal acts were the underlying cause of harm. However, an amended complaint alleged that the flight attendant’s injuries continued after United received specific notice. I wrote that Denson might have roughly a 50-50 chance of surviving summary judgment. We haven’t gotten there yet, and only one of her theories are left. My general belief is that, the flight attendant made bad relationship choices that’s not really United’s fault flight attendants should be more skeptical before dating pilots. There was a similar United case in 2018 where a different pilot posted explicit images of another United flight attendant online, along with her name, home airport, uniform and references to “Fly the Friendly Skies.” The EEOC filed against United and they paid $321,000 and agreed to harassment policies. Topics on this page