Flight captain sues SWISS: Compulsory vaccination jeopardizes flight safety

A Swiss pilot is currently suing Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss at the Public Prosecutor's Office in Basel and the International Criminal Court for endangering flight safety; we have received the corresponding statements of claim. The Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss had introduced mandatory vaccination for all staff on December 1, 2021; several hundred employees were against it [14]. The plaintiff alleges that Swiss ignored all publicly available reports of side effects and nevertheless continues to maintain the vaccination requirement for staff; this jeopardizes flight safety and is also relevant under criminal law for various other reasons. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, the proceedings are proceeding slowly, many departments are (deliberately?) delaying their response, and corresponding warnings have been sent to the departments responsible for processing the case. According to the plaintiff, the destinations served by Swiss no longer require a coronavirus vaccination, the reason for the mandatory vaccination no longer applies and the vaccination is no longer operationally necessary for staff, the plaintiff argues. Swiss had even canceled flights in January 2022 to avoid deploying unvaccinated staff, even though there were only two countries worldwide in January 2022 that still required vaccination on entry [1]. The plaintiff is therefore correct here, there is no longer any justification for mandatory vaccination of flight personnel. Nevertheless, Swiss had laid off unvaccinated staff in droves, officially due to a pandemic-related drop in revenue [30, 31, 35].

Is it really the case that vaccinated people, and in particular vaccinated flight personnel or pilots*, suffer heart attacks more frequently, and does this really jeopardize flight safety, in other words, is the complaint really justified? 

The fact is, health problems among pilots and other flight personnel have been increasing worldwide recently, there are various case reports, including on official reporting platforms [2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 53], various airlines are affected [20]. US military pilots experienced 937 % more heart problems than before the vaccination campaign began [3], and a news article from last year reported eight incidents on civilian flights in the month of March alone (of course without taking into account any unreported cases) [11].

The fitness of vaccinated pilots to fly is indeed questionable, as high demands are placed on the physical fitness of pilots, they have to undergo regular tests and it is forbidden to fly an aircraft if there is a risk of side effects from medication [12]. However, experts currently fear exactly that: More heart problems among pilots after vaccination with the novel corona vaccines [13], for example, one doctor reports more than 20 cases from practice [21, 22]. Pilots [15, 19] as well as aviation associations and pilot associations [36] are critical of vaccination and urge caution [16, 17], and not only the pilot from Switzerland has filed a lawsuit, a US pilots' association has filed a lawsuit against 18 US airlines due to existing personnel vaccination obligations [18]. 

So-called "squawks" or "maydays", which also include health problems of passengers or flight personnel, are precisely recorded in aviation, and the number of such serious emergency events has increased by 386 % in temporal correlation to the vaccination campaign [23, 24, 25]. This does not fit in with the fact that pilots and cabin crew must actually be fit and undergo regular check-ups [12, 23]. The US Federal Aviation Administration is currently reducing the ECG requirements for pilots [26], and the question arises as to whether there is a connection to the coronavirus vaccination campaign. Various pilots have lost their license after the vaccination for medical reasons, pilots of various airlines are affected [32].

At this point, it is worth taking a look at another group of people who are also increasingly affected by serious vaccination side effects such as thrombosis and heart problems: Athletes [38, 39, 41, 42, 43]. Just like pilots, athletes must be physically fit. Male athletes are more likely to suffer from heart problems, female athletes from thrombosis [40]. If there is good blood flow in the upper arm due to well-developed muscles, the vaccine can enter the bloodstream and thus the heart if there is no aspiration (i.e. if the needle is not checked to see if it is in the bloodstream) and cause damage there [40]. Athletes were also indirectly exposed to mandatory vaccination, as many sports facilities had access restrictions such as 2G or 2G+ [44]. While the vaccination requirement for athletes and medical personnel has been lifted, it still exists in some cases for airline and military personnel.

It is undisputed that flights, especially long-haul flights, pose a particular risk for patients with thrombosis [45, 46, 47]. Patients with thrombosis should take precautions during flights, such as wearing support stockings or blood thinners [35]. An increased risk of thrombosis among flight personnel could therefore indeed jeopardize flight safety, and Swiss would have a duty to address these concerns [37]. It is also undisputed that the novel corona vaccines increase the risk of thrombosis, just like long-haul flights [48, 49, 50], as does an increase in heart disease and sudden deaths among those vaccinated against corona [51, 52].

With regard to the potential threat to flight safety, we therefore note the following: the fact that the risk of thrombosis increases on long-haul flights is just as undisputed as the fact that the risk of thrombosis increases after a corona vaccination; pilots are also particularly susceptible to heart problems and thrombosis after a corona vaccination due to their good physical fitness; at the same time, pilots are not allowed to fly at all if there is a risk of a drug side effect.

Nevertheless, Swiss, like other airlines, initially introduced mandatory vaccination for flight personnel and still requires applicants to be willing to be vaccinated [54].

Well then, have a good flight!