Virgin Australia engineer sacked for alleged misconduct after raising safety concerns

A Virgin Australia flight operations engineer who raised safety concerns with his superiors was sacked for alleged misconduct, documents show. Internal records show Brisbane-based Virgin employee Yahya Khattabi raised concerns in mid-September about the training manuals given to the airline’s new Boeing 737 pilots, alleging they failed to comply with federal regulations. Senior management disagreed with his claims, but Khattabi persisted and organised a meeting with his superiors for further discussion on 21 September. The meeting did not take place. On the same day, Khattabi received a letter telling him he was suspended with immediate effect for serious allegations that he had breached Virgin’s code of conduct. The airline wrote to Khattabi again five days later, expanding on its reasons for the suspension. It alleged Khattabi had “sent a series of emails” in the week before his suspension that “included content and/or adopted a tone that was threatening, inappropriate, disrespectful and unprofessional”. It also cited Khattabi’s reaction to being suspended as evidence of his misconduct.<br/>