Airline Sues 2 Pilots After They Allegedly Hacked Computer System to Gain Coworkers ...

Former SkyWest pilots Daniel Moussaron and Vikaas Krithivas claim they were accessing the information to organize a pilots union

A regional airline is suing two of its former pilots after they allegedly gained unauthorized access to thousands of confidential employee records.

SkyWest Airlines — one of the largest regional airlines in North America, operating flights on behalf of American, Delta, United and Alaska Airlines — filed a civil complaint against two of its former pilots on Jan. 30 in the U.S. District Court of Utah. In it, they accuse Minnesota resident Daniel Moussaron and Illinois resident Vikaas Krithivas of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) , breach of contract and civil conspiracy.

According to the complaint, SkyWest IT logs from Aug. 29, 2025, reportedly show that Moussaron “initiated a series of unauthorized activities to obtain pilot employee data,” including address and personal phone numbers from the company’s SkyWest Online (SWOL) portal. The suit claims he obtained the information for two separate pilots during his initial session. The following day, Moussaron allegedly accessed data for 18 different pilots, “starting with the first pilot on the seniority list and progressing down the list sequentially.” Over the three months, the employee returned to SWOL on at least eight more occasions to access and download data for a total of 365 pilots, per the complaint.

Meanwhile, Krithivas was allegedly also pulling data from the SWOL directory and began on Sept. 3, 2025. That day, they claim Krithivas accessed and downloaded 4,970 pilots’ personnel records, including addresses and phone numbers. The complaint accuses the men of working together on the data scraping, “handing off between themselves and resuming where the other left off without skipping any pilots.”

In December 2025, the suit claims SkyWest pilots began receiving mass messages on their personal cell phones “unrelated to legitimate SkyWest business operations.” The company believes, per the complaint, that the defendants used the personal information they gathered to distribute those messages.

A month later, SkyWest allegedly received a complaint from a company pilot, who said he received an unsolicited call to his personal phone promoting an “outside effort.” The employee allegedly claimed “we have some really smart people” who found a backdoor to the company directory.

SkyWest alleges the employees violated their NDAs, which prohibited them from disclosing confidential information they may have had access to. They further allege the men violated the CFFA and committed civil conspiracy against the company.

The company is demanding a trial by jury and is seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

PEOPLE has reached out to SkyWest Airlines and its attorneys for . In a motion filed by Moussaron, the former pilot claims he began “organizing to form a labor union” in April 2025. He claims he was a member of the organizing committee working with the Air Line Pilots Association to organize SkyWest pilots.

Moussaron claims that SWOL allows pilots to view “limited” information via the user interface, such as name, base, and supervisor, but not phone numbers or addresses. However, Moussaron says by using “standard browser developer tools,” he was able to access additional information. “At no point did I ‘bypass’ or ‘circumvent’ any server-side access control, escalate privileges or access an administrator-only function,” Moussaron says in his motion.

In Krithivas’ response, he claims he was contacted by Moussaron to help access the pilot directory, adding that “I believed Daniel Moussaron’s sole intent was to collect pilot information to facilitate a drive to unionize SkyWest pilots.”

Moussaron’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction on Feb. 20, arguing this matter is a “labor dispute.”

Jonathan Thorne, an attorney for Moussaron, tells PEOPLE his client "did not bypass [SkyWest's] security measures or otherwise obtain unauthorized access to information." Instead, he claims "it was viewable using the credentials and authorizations SkyWest set for him."

"The conduct that they've accused him of is union organizing activity that's protected under The Railway Labor Act. He didn't hack their system, there was no conspiracy here, he didn't use confidential information. SkyWest had an online directory that provided him access to employees' information that he used as part of union organizing efforts."

PEOPLE has reached out to Krithivas’ attorneys, as well as the Air Line Pilots Association for .