Random witness picks and no discipline for the supervisor left the airline exposed

A federal appeals court upheld a sexual harassment verdict against SkyWest Airlines, ruling its weak internal investigation left it exposed to punitive damages.

On July 9, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a jury's verdict that SkyWest Airlines harassed one of its workers because of her sex, and then failed to fix it. The case turned largely on how the company ran its own internal investigation.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought the case under Title VII, the federal law banning workplace discrimination, on behalf of a parts clerk at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

According to the court's account of the trial evidence, the worker faced a steady run of sexual comments from coworkers. She testified that a maintenance supervisor asked whether she "liked whips and chains and leathers." Other employees, the court said, joked about sex, viewed pornography at work, and made repeated references to rape. One worker, in the court's recounting, said "people that cry rape are just stupid."

The employee reported the behavior to her supervisor. She testified that he seemed mostly "annoyed" and cautioned that stepping in would "put a larger target on [her] back." The comments continued. She suffered severe emotional distress, went on medical leave, and later accepted an early retirement package, telling the court she feared the environment would...

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