We'll talk in Chicago. We will. Gerald leaned close to Karen's ear. The passengers who recorded at least four phones. It's going to be online within the hour.
Karen looked at him. Good. The first video hit Twitter 43 minutes after landing. A 19-second clip filmed from row two. Victoria's voice clear and unmistakable.
This is first class, not the bus station. The camera shaking slightly as Derek grabbed Karen's wrist. Natalie's voice offscreen. Let go of her. By the time Karen reached Meridian's Chicago regional office, the video had been viewed 200,000 times.
By dinner, it had crossed 4 million. By midnight, #Justice forcin was the number one trending topic in the United States. But the internet only knew half the story. Karen sat in the conference room on the 14th floor with Gerald, the head of legal and the director of internal affairs. She opened a folder she had carried with her since Atlanta.
A folder she had kept in her home office safe for 15 years. Pull Victoria Ashford's full personnel file, she said. Every complaint, every incident report, every transfer request going back to Atlas Air. It took 2 hours. What they found was worse than Karen expected.
Six formal complaints of racial discrimination filed against Victoria Ashford in the last four years alone. Six passengers, five black, one Latino, who had reported being harassed, humiliated, or denied service by the same flight attendant on the same airline. Every single complaint had been reviewed by Meridian's internal affairs team. Every single one had been closed with the same notation. Insufficient evidence, no action taken.
The director of internal affairs went pale. I need to check who signed off on these closures. Do that, Karen said, and then check who else knew, but the complaints were only the surface. Karen opened the folder from her safe. Inside was a USB drive, a copy of security camera footage from Atlas Air's Atlanta crew office dated 15 years earlier.
She had obtained it during her wrongful termination lawsuit before Atlas had tried to destroy it during bankruptcy proceedings. Her attorney had preserved a certified copy. Gerald plugged the drive into the conference room monitor. The footage played. The video was grainy, timestamped, and silent.
It showed the Atlas Air crew office, a small room with a desk, two chairs, and a filing cabinet. A younger Victoria Ashford sat across from an Atlas Air supervisor. She was writing a statement. The camera captured the document clearly enough to read the key lines. I personally observed flight attendant Karen Taylor remove the passenger's watch from the overhead compartment and place it in her uniform pocket.
Karen had never touched the watch. The watch had been found in the passenger's own jacket 48 hours later, but by then Victoria's statement had already ended Karen's career at Atlas Air. She lied under oath during the internal hearing. Karen said she signed a false witness statement and she's been working for my airline ever since, doing the exact same thing to other people. The room was silent.
Gerald spoke first. We terminate both immediately. Ashford and Simmons cause gross misconduct, violation of federal anti-discrimination statutes, and company policy. Do it tonight. The false testimony from 15 years ago, that's a separate matter.
Our legal team can refer it to the US attorney's office for potential perjury charges. Refer it. And the six buried complaints. Someone inside Meridian covered for her. That's a systemic failure.