Air Canada is standing by a pilot at the centre of a bizarre incident that occurred in 2008. (Canadian Press)

Air Canada is standing by a pilot at the centre of a bizarre incident two years ago in which co-workers refused to fly with him, fearing he was suicidal and accusing him of threatening to ditch his aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean.

The airline insisted Thursday that the eyebrow-raising circumstances emanating from a dispute aboard a Toronto-Paris flight in July 2008 amounted to nothing more than a minor conflict between staff and a healthy, competent pilot.

Public safety was never compromised, although the situation, which began as a dispute between the unnamed pilot and chief steward Hugh Bouchard, culminated in a battle in Federal Court.

What prompted the original conflict remains unclear. But according to Bouchard, the pilot threatened to ditch the plane over the Atlantic, saying "he had nothing to lose as he was being fired anyway," court documents show.

Airline spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the incident was investigated at the time, and that the ensuing report made no reference to the pilot making a threat to ditch the plane.

A thorough investigation at the time turned up no safety issues with the pilot, who is still flying for Air Canada, Fitzpatrick said.

Still, a month after that flight, four other flight attendants adamantly refused to set foot on a plane headed for Paris captained by the same pilot, based on Bouchard's concerns.

Federal probe

An independent federal safety officer was brought in to probe the work stoppage. The safety officer talked to the flight attendants, union representatives, managers and others who knew the pilot, and found only the attendants had any concerns about him.

The officer then chalked up the incident to a normal workplace dispute, and decided the attendants had no right to refuse to work. As a result, she decided there was no need to investigate whether the pilot's mental state did in fact pose any danger.

Air Canada, which took the view that conflicts can arise at any time and the attendants should have used the carrier's resolution process, agreed the pilot posed no threat.

However, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the attendants, challenged her findings in Federal Court. Judge John O'Keefe sided with the union.

O'Keefe found the investigator was wrong to conclude the conflict between pilot and steward was a "normal condition" of employment. Instead, O'Keefe ruled this month, the investigator should have first decided whether the pilot's alleged mental state did in fact constitute a danger that justified the attendants' refusal to work.

Air Canada said it was not planning an appeal and no disciplinary action was ever taken.