Heathrow ratcatcher fired for pointing gun at colleague

A Heathrow worker has been fired for pointing a shotgun at a colleague’s face and carrying the cocked weapon around part of the airport.

Andrew Cooke was dismissed for gross misconduct after the incident in the airport’s control room, which a tribunal judge said put his colleagues’ “safety in jeopardy”.

Mr Cooke was a senior airfield officer and part of his job was to shoot birds and vermin on the runway.

On 3 August 2016 he signed out a shotgun before entering the control room.

“Following… some reported swearing it is reported that he swung a broken shotgun into the cocked position with the barrels ending up pointing at Michael Brown and within close proximity of his face / upper body area,” according to the investigating officer’s report, disclosed in the employment tribunal’s judgement this month.

Mr Cooke, who had worked at Heathrow for more than 13 years, acknowledged the gun did point at Mr Brown's head.

He was investigated and dismissed in October last year.

But he accused the airport of unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal. He told the tribunal it was an accident and that Heathrow was looking for an excuse to sack him as he was paid "substantially more" than some of his colleagues.

He said the gun had slid, leading him to tilt his arm upwards, causing the firearm to close and leaving it pointing at his colleague.

Mr Cooke told the tribunal, in Reading, that he then panicked and ran away with the closed gun over his shoulder.

At no point, he said, was the firearm loaded.

This broke several crucial safety rules including that the gun should never be pointed at anyone even when it is believed to be unloaded, and that it should be carried broken to show it is unloaded.

The tribunal found that the dismissal was not unfair nor wrongful.

“I concluded that, in my opinion, you had removed this critical safety layer and therefore you did put your colleagues at risk and their safety in jeopardy,” said employment judge Steven Vowles.

“The three charges of gross misconduct were upheld.”