Flight attendant sues SpaceX, alleging age discrimination and wrongful termination after cancer diagnosis
Why It MattersThe lawsuit highlights scrutiny over scheduling, staffing and termination practices within corporate flight departments operating private aviation crews for executive travel.
Lydia Fillip, a 60-year-old lead cabin attendant trained at the British Butler Institute of London, has filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and its Chief Pilot Conner Grey, alleging she was sidelined in favour of younger attendants and fired by phone after being diagnosed with stage-four melanoma. Fillip was hired by SpaceX in 2023 at $800 a day to fly between the company's Hawthorne, California headquarters and its Texas offices.
According to the complaint, after Grey took over scheduling in February 2025, younger attendants Delainy Reyes and Stacy Brown received markedly more work, including Gulfstream shifts carrying SpaceX executives such as founder Elon Musk. Fillip also cites the July 2024 hiring of 22-year-old Kelly Doak, whose background she says was in door-to-door sales and fitness instruction rather than aviation, and alleges Doak left a service cart unattended without its brakes set.
Fillip was diagnosed with stage-four melanoma in December 2024 and continued working through immunotherapy until April 2025, when she told Grey she needed to step back for medical reasons. Despite being cleared to return by doctors in May 2025, she received only a handful of trips before being fired by phone in September, during which Grey allegedly said he "didn't like her attitude" before ending the call by "coldly wishing Ms. Fillip good luck." Fillip is seeking economic damages, pain-and-suffering compensation, and a jury trial, with both SpaceX and Grey named as defendants.
