Ex-Qantas pilot copied sensitive documents from employer

A former QantasLink pilot has admitted to copying sensitive material from the Flying Kangaroo days before jumping ship to Virgin Australia in 2024.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on HR Leader sister brand Australian Aviation.

Captain Luke Fogarty, former head of E190 commercial, operations, and performance at Qantas, copied “several thousand megabytes” of commercial information, including for E190s, 737s, and 787s, and has reached a settlement with Qantas over the matter, The Australian reports.

Responding to a lawsuit by Qantas, Fogarty had initially claimed he did not know the documents he sent to his personal email and iCloud were copyrighted and denied he intended to use the information as Virgin Australia’s new head of performance – a role he still holds.

However, he has since admitted to breaching his obligation to act in Qantas’ best interests; failing to comply with Qantas policies, procedures, and code of conduct; breaching his legal and ethical obligations to the Flying Kangaroo; and infringing on Qantas’ copyright.

In its initial statement of claim to the Federal Court, Qantas said the documents “concern its commercially sensitive business affairs, including aircraft procurement, commercial strategy and operations management”.

“The documents are subject to measures put in place by Qantas to prevent them from disclosure, are not in the public domain and are confidential to Qantas,” the airline said.

“The vast and detailed extent of the information contained in the documents and concerning several facets of the Qantas business as a large-scale provider of commercial aviation services, is such that it may reasonably be presumed to exceed Mr Fogarty’s general know-how.”

As part of the settlement, Fogarty is “permanently restrained from using, disclosing or distributing any documents, files or data, including the contents of the Qantas confidential files” and must delete all Qantas-related electronic documents he has.

Other material securely held by solicitors will be destroyed, while a Qantas iPad will be returned to the airline. Fogarty has been ordered to pay a fixed sum for Qantas’ legal costs.

Virgin Australia, which was not a party to the case, is replacing its four ageing regional Fokker 100s with new Embraer E190-E2s based in Perth, the first of which arrived last year.