A veteran United Airlines flight attendant who has worked for the carrier for nearly 27 years and is sometimes referred to as a ‘senior mama’ by her colleagues says she has been harassed, bullied, and called a ‘snitch’ by fellow flight attendants because she reported FAA safety violations to her manager.
In one case, Ingrid Raganova says she reported one of her colleagues for watching his iPad with his headphones in during an international flight, despite this being against the company’s rules and potentially in violation of FAA regulations.
In another case, Raganova reported a colleague for using their mobile phone to send a text message while the plane was taking off – a critical phase of flight when flight attendants should be fully alert and adopting a special seating position in the event of an unexpected emergency.
Rather than being thanked by her bosses for reporting these serious safety issues, however, Raganova says she was retaliated against by United, who demoted her from her senior position as an international purser and then slapped her with a Level 2 disciplinary action, which could have seen her terminated.
Not long after, Raganova noticed that her colleagues, many of whom she had never even worked with before, started to treat her with hostility and even began to file frivolous and false reports about her behavior.
When Raganova was traveling home from Lisbon as a passenger in First Class, one flight attendant even refused to serve her, and Raganova heard her colleagues describe her with a slur word. A report she filed about the incident allegedly went unanswered.
Then, an online hate campaign started against her, in which Raganova was labeled a ‘snitch’ in social media posts that were shared with nearly 25,000 flight attendants.
Amazingly, Raganova says in a lawsuit filed in New Jersey Superior Court late last month that her bosses wiped their hands of the issue and said there was little they could do to stop her colleagues bullying her.
Raganova traces the mistreatment against her back to two and a half years ago when a gate agent at Los Angeles International Airport shut the door of the aircraft without authorization and before the cabin was ready.
When Raganova reported this safety violation to her base boss in Newark, rather than being thanked, she says she was reprimanded for being “unprofessional.”
The ‘retaliatory’ action against Raganova became even worse, she claims, when she reported a colleague for using his iPad on work time and then refusing to tidy up the onboard lavatories because ‘he doesn’t do lavatories”.
Rather than taking her reports seriously, the lawsuit claims United took more notice of ‘fabricated’ reports from other flight attendants on the same flight, resulting in her being demoted from international purser to flight attendant.
Things came to a head, however, when, on June 1, 2024, a social media post shared amongst the airline’s flight attendant community called Raganova a ‘snitch’.
“Since this social media posting was issued to what is believed to be approximately 25,000 flight attendants within Defendant’s network, Plaintiff has noticed she has been treated significantly worse and is being subjected to an extremely toxic work environment and met with hostility on almost every flight she has to take,” the civil complaint against United alleges.
“Plaintiff now cannot sleep, has constant pain emotionally, has had to use personal data to stay home from work due to anxiety and depression she has suffered from, and is paralyzed with fear from the hostility from people she has never even met.”
Raganova still works for United Airlines but has been demoted and subjected to disciplinary action for reporting alleged safety violations by her colleagues.
Matt’s take
Social media campaigns alleged flight attendant ‘snitches’ have become quite common in the past couple of years, and often, people are able to use anonymous posts or burner accounts to name and shame their colleagues for alleged transgressions.
Last week, I reported about a Dallas Fort Worth-based flight attendant at a major American airline who had been terminated after a colleague reported her for closing her eyes during a domestic flight.
That incident became public after it was shared on social media, including the name and other identifying details of the colleague who reported the terminated crew member.
What this lawsuit shows, however, is that sharing this kind of very personal details can have a devastating effect on someone’s mental health.
Flight attendants and pilots have a tight community, if there is an issue with someone, the proper way to handle it is to deal with it on the airplane. There is also a department within the unions that can dispute the grievance without management being involved. This United flight attendant needs to learn that, especially for being a senior flight attendant! Shame on her!!!!
Absolutely correct. Complaints or concerns such as this should never go to management. The airline unions have Professional Standards representatives, to whom concerns and complaints should be addressed. Crew members taking complaints to management will end up on everyone’s Do Not Fly list.
27 years as a flight attendant is not a senior mama and another 20 years to that and you got a senior mama.
Sounds like she got a taste of her own medicine.
FAFO don’t be a snitch
The five commenters (all flight attendants?) remind me of Boeing, where the criminals banded together to cover up violations and dox whistleblowers. The result? Dead passengers on MAX flights.