Ryanair dismisses pilot safety survey as nonsense

Ryanair did not accept the results of an internet survey among its pilots about their attitudes to safety reporting procedures because the survey was “anonymous and unverified”, the company’s HR director Darrell Hughes has told the Irish High Court. Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG) said more than 1,000 pilots responded to the survey and that it gave rise to serious concerns for safety reporting in the airline, the court heard. The group later gave the results to a Channel 4 Dispatches programme. Hughes agreed with Ryanair counsel Thomas Hogan that the survey had been described as bogus because it was an anonymous and unverified internet survey. Hughes was giving evidence on the sixth day of Ryanair’s defamation action against three founders of the RPG – Evert Van Zwol, John Goss and Ted Murphy. The airline claims they issued an email in September 2013 falsely saying the company misled investors. The three deny the email meant what Ryanair alleges and deny defamation. Hughes told a judge and jury that the documents circulated to RPG members included one claiming Ryanair was trying to maximise profits at the cost of eroding pilot terms and condition. While Hughes believed the views were nonsense, it was typical of the “cut and thrust” of industrial relations.<br/>