NetJets, the personal jet agency owned by Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway, is suing its pilots’ union.
Filed Monday in an Ohio state court docket, the lawsuit accuses the union of defaming NetJets.
The corporate sells possession shares in personal plane, giving clients the best to fly for a sure variety of hours with quick discover.
The lawsuit claims the three,400-member NetJets Affiliation of Shared Plane Pilots (NJASAP) made false statements in regards to the security of the corporate’s operations.
In 2023, NJASAP mentioned that coaching is being performed by folks “who’ve little to no data of NetJets’ commonplace working procedures and plane,” per the swimsuit.
It provides that this 12 months, the union printed an article saying NetJets “persists in its effort to attract down a as soon as vibrant security tradition.”
The swimsuit additionally mentioned that in late January, the NJASAP took out an advert in The Wall Road Journal referencing the door plug blowout on an Alaska Airways Boeing 737 Max, studying: “NetJets House owners: What if you happen to seemed out your window and noticed a panel of the aircraft?”
That blowout sparked a disaster at Boeing because the planemaker works to enhance its security tradition amid elevated scrutiny from regulators.
Nevertheless, NetJets does not function any Boeing planes. Its attorneys mentioned the advert was false and “clearly supposed to alarm” clients.
NetJets is asking the court docket for unspecified damages and to ban the union from making extra statements.
In a Wednesday press launch, the NJASAP president, Pedor Leroux, mentioned: “We view the lawsuit as an try and silence us.”
“Nevertheless, NJASAP has a federally protected proper and an organizational and ethical accountability to our members — the NetJets pilots — and to our clients to boost issues of safety, and we’ll proceed to do exactly that,” he added.
NetJets, in an announcement shared with Enterprise Insider, mentioned it would not touch upon authorized issues as its “focus is on offering the distinctive security and repair our homeowners count on and deserve.”
