A Delta Air Lines flight attendant who was caught up in a ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv’s main airport in May 2025 is now suing the Atlanta-based carrier for retaliation after he was terminated in response to an investigation prompted by this incident.
Mark Shannon, who had worked as a flight attendant at Delta for nearly 10 years, says he was left traumatized by the missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport, but rather than being supported by his bosses, he was left thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Flight attendant caught up in missile attack on TLV airport
On May 4, 2025, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel. A ‘Red Alert’ warning sounded over most of Central Israel, and the country’s sophisticated air defense systems were activated to counter the attack.
One of those missiles, however, penetrated the air defense systems and landed on the outskirts of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, sending a large plume of thick black smoke into the sky.
At the moment that those missiles were flying towards Israel, a Delta Air Lines flight from New York JFK had just landed in Tel Aviv. In fact, the plane was so close to what was unfolding that, according to Shannon’s lawsuit, the pilots were able to record an eight-second video of the missiles flying overhead.
Flight attendants who were on the flight, including Shannon, were rushed into a bomb shelter at the airport as air raid sirens wailed and air traffic was suspended in response to the threat.
The crew was trapped in the shelter for two hours, where they watched the video of the missiles and heard stories from Israelis about their experiences of living through these kinds of attacks.
Shannon says he was left incredibly distressed by watching the video, as well as hearing stories of people being killed in bus bomb explosions and other terror attacks that have occurred over the years.
Delta wanted flight attendants to fly straight back to New York
Once the all-clear had been given, Delta wanted to get its pilots and flight attendants back to New York as quickly as possible. Although they had just worked a 10 and a half hour flight, Delta planned to ‘deadhead’ the crew back to JFK on the same plane they had just arrived on, rather than putting them up in a local hotel for the night.
In a lawsuit recently filed in a New York district court, Shannon says he was too distressed and fatigued to get back on the same plane and wanted to rest in a hotel for the night.
Shannon told Delta’s scheduling department that he was scared for his safety because of missile activity close to the hotel, but his boss contacted him and said it would be up to him to buy his own hotel room, taxi, and even his own return flight home.
He ended up racking up around $3,500 in costs from his decision not to deadhead straight home with the rest of the crew, and also allegedly missed out on so-called ‘event pay’ that Delta paid the other flight attendants who were caught up in this incident.
Flight attendant complained to the FAA about his treatment
Shannon came to believe that Delta was retaliating against him for his actions in Tel Aviv, and contacted both the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
In August, Shannon was called into a meeting by Delta which he thought was about discussing a refund for the costs he incurred when he was in Tel Aviv. Instead, he was suspended and had his badge confiscated.
Shannon believes the decision to suspend him was tied to the complaints he filed with the FAA and EEOC.
Terminated shortly after filing official complaints
Less than a month later, Shannon was terminated. Delta told him that he was being dismissed for “failing to show safety protocols, refusing to demonstrate respect and professionalism towards leadership, action jeopardizing the safety and cohesion of the remaining crew, misled and investigation, and uncooperative with leadership to participate in a security debrief of a serious incident.”
Shannon argues these reasons are little more than a pretext for retaliation for his complaining to the FAA and EEOC, as well as race discrimination as an African American.
Bottom line
The core argument that Shannon makes is that his refusal to fly straight back to New York was based on a “reasonable belief that doing so would violate FAA duty time and rest regulations, and would compromise safety due to operational fatigue and the active conflict zone.”
Unlike similar lawsuits brought by flight attendants, Shannon isn’t necessarily asking the court to order Delta to give him his job back, but he is seeking back and front pay, as well as compensatory damages for emotional distress, pain, and suffering.
Shannon v. Delta Air Lines Inc. (case reference: 1:25-cv-07007)
