BA steward fired after threatening to poison pilot

A British Airways flight attendant was fired today for allegedly threatening to poison a pilot who broke the union’s strike. Apparently the threats were made as comments on a YouTube video and traced back to Bryan Benning by senior BA officials.

Benning, 43, is suing British Airways for unfair dismissal. He denies that the YouTube messages were not posted by him but by his brother.

The panel was told that Mr Benning, writing under the psuedonym ‘Strike 2010’, made comments aimed at strike-breaking cabin crew and staff.

“Don’t eat anything you are to be served on board. Bring your own food on board. We know everything, we have all your details.”

[Benning’s lawyer] said that her client was provoked into posting messages because of what other people had said, including one blogger who said: “Cabin crew you are paid £30,000 a year and all you do it open a packet of dry roasted nuts and walk up and down an aeroplane; you have no qualifications or skills.”

“The women are only employed if they have a nice ass and male cabin crew members have those faces you want to punch - and I would love to - until it looks like a beef burger.”

“You are glorified waiters and waitresses. The hardest part of your job is putting ice cubes into tiny glasses.”

Them are fightin' words!

From another article:

The [strike] began over cost-cutting measures by the airline, including a pay freeze and a reduction in the number of cabin crew on long haul flights. It later spread to other issues and is now centered on travel concessions withdrawn from staff who took part in earlier strikes.