The pilot who’s afraid of f lying

Flybe sacked him after anxiety attacks … but he WINS case for unfair dismissal

‘Very sick and jumpy’

A pilot who was fired after developing a fear of flying has won his claim for unfair dismissal.

First officer Matthew Guest had ‘panic attacks’ after being switched to a different type of aircraft, an employment tribunal heard.

the father of two was dismissed after almost a decade’s ‘good service’ to budget airline Flybe after suffering three periods of absence linked to anxiety and then depression.

But an employment judge ruled he should have been offered alternative roles or at least an opportunity to talk to group chief operating officer luke Farajallah. Mr Guest could now get his job back.

the employment tribunal heard Mr Guest’s problems began in 2014 when he was moved from Q400 turboprop aircraft on to Embraer E-jets, based at Birmingham Airport, which cruise for a longer time.

on December 13 of that year, a few days after completing his E-jet training, he suddenly felt anxious, hot and dizzy with a ‘churning stomach’ half way through a flight. later that month, he reported having a feeling of impending doom as he drove to the airport.

Mr Guest was advised to keep a log of his experiences, which he did. But when anxiety returned ahead of a flight to iceland in February 2015, he told his captain he was not well enough to fly.

Mr Guest informed his aeromedical adviser and his Gp, who wrote to Flybe saying her patient ‘ has developed an increasing phobia and anxiety about long- distance flights and being trapped on the aeroplane’. Mr Guest’s medical certificate was suspended and he had cognitive behavioural therapy before it was reinstated at the end of April.

But ahead of a flight to Salzburg in July he began to feel ‘very sick and jumpy’ and was ‘de-planed’. A further period of absence and therapy followed and Mr Guest was prescribed an antidepressant suitable for pilots. He was passed fit to fly again in october 2015 and began a gradual return to work the following April. But that June, he called in sick before a four-hour flight to Kefalonia.

the tribunal heard that Mr Guest told the firm he would be happy to return to the smaller planes – a move backed by a medical report.

But the airline said retraining would cost £13,500 and there were no vacancies. He was eventually dismissed by Mr Farajallah in a letter sent in January 2017. it read: ‘Due to the uncertainty of your condition we cannot as an organisation accept the risk to safety.’

the firm offered him a groundbased role as Flight Safety Support officer – 200 miles from home at its Exeter HQ. But he turned it down after being told it would not lead to him flying again. Upholding his claim, judge tom Coghlin QC said: ‘it is a basic principle of natural justice and of fairness that an employee should have the chance to address the relevant decision-maker. Here, the claimant had no such opportunity.’

Mr Guest is seeking reinstatement, but if the parties cannot resolve the issue, a further hearing will take place at the end of this month.