A senior executive at Aer Lingus has told a tribunal that he takes “exception” to a sacked pilot’s allegation that other senior managers at the airline engaged in “falsifying” an air safety report. The airline’s chief operating officer, Adrian Dunne, was under cross-examination again on Friday as the airline continued its defence against complaints of whistleblower penalisation and unfair dismissal by the pilot, ex-A320 captain Tom O’Riordan. He claims he was “poisoned” by toxic fumes while in command of an Aer Lingus jet, EI-DEN, on an empty ferry flight in June 2023 and took to social media in an “awareness campaign” when his concerns about “fume events” were not addressed by the airline. He was sacked for breaches of the airline’s social media policy.O’Riordan had alleged two senior managers at the airline, Colm Wynne, a senior managing pilot, and Conor Nolan, the airline’s director of safety and security, had “falsified” an air safety report on the EI-DEN incident, the tribunal has heard. This was on the basis the report was filed under O’Riordan’s name when he was recovering in hospital, having told the airline he was unable to make it, his legal team has told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). David Byrnes, for O’Riordan, questioned Dunne, the airline’s chief operating officer further on Friday on a July 30th, 2024 disciplinary appeal meeting the witness held with his client. Dunne denied that he “ignored and refused to engage” with O’Riordan when the complainant told him the disciplinary charges against him were “penalisation for speaking out”. The witness said that he was hearing an appeal “exactly on the facts” of the disciplinary process which decided that O’Riordan was to be dismissed for “infringement of our social media policy”. Counsel put it to Dunne that when O’Riordan again brought up his allegation that the air safety report was “falsified” at the appeal meeting, the witness’s response was: “That is a completely false allegation on your behalf.” “You’ve no evidence to support that, do you?” counsel said. “We run an airline where systems and processes are in place, that’s my evidence,” Mr Dunne replied. “I believe in the system, and that it works,” the executive said. Byrnes put it to him he was “showing no interest” in “serious issues” being raised by his client, and Dunne reiterated that he was “there to hear an appeal about social media breaches”. “You’re not going to tolerate my client making serious allegations against senior people in Aer Lingus,” counsel said. “I do take exception to allegations against my colleagues,” Dunne said. Nolan said in evidence last year that a committee of senior managers at Aer Lingus reviewed O’Riordan’s allegation when O’Riordan first raised it internally, and concluded there was “no forgery or falsification”. The airline’s safety office had a 72-hour window to inform the Irish Aviation Authority of such events and thought Mr O’Riordan would take part later, Mr Nolan said. Adjudicator Aideen Collard has adjourned the matter to later in the year.