Boeing-backed eVTOL startup Wisk Aero is being sued by a former employee who claims they were fired for reporting that the software behind the autonomous air taxi service had failed to meet basic aviation software testing requirements.
According to a LinkedIn profile matching the plaintiff’s name and employment history, Briahna O’Neill’s acted as Wisk Aero’s Supervisor of Systems Engineering and Product Security, and reportedly led software integration for the aircraft’s vehicle management system (VMS) until 31MAR2025.
It was on that date, 12 days after O’Neill’s lawsuit alleges she formally reported her concerns through Wisk’s internal safety-reporting system and 10 days after raising them directly with the company’s head of safety, that O’Neill was fired.
“I spent years at Wisk believing in the company’s mission and in the future of this technology,” O’Neill wrote, in a statement given to The Seattle Times. “When I raised safety concerns to the company, I did so because I believed it was the right thing to do, not just for myself but for every passenger who would one day fly with this technology.”
“Wisk’s response was not one of accountability,” O’Neill continued. “It was retaliation.”
What this is all about
The VMS can be described as an aircrafts operating system, coordinating all the major onboard systems – systems like sensors, batteries, motors, flight controls, and communications – that make assisted or autonomous flight possible. Because it’s responsible for so many critical functions, an aircraft’s VMS typically undergoes extensive cycles of safety and validation testing before regulators it can be certified for use in a passenger aircraft.
O’Neill’s lawsuit claims that the Wisk VMS contained “known defects” and excessive amounts of “spaghetti code” that hadn’t gone through basic verification steps like unit testing and root-cause analysis that are required under DO-178C, the FAA-recognized certification standard for aviation software. O’Neill also alleges that Wisk’s leadership had pressed the team to cut testing even further in order to preserve a May deadline for a first-flight of the company’s sixth-generation eVTOL aircraft.
On March 19, O’Neill filed a formal safety report, stating that the testing cuts violated DO-178C. She was fired 12 days later, on March 31; her manager cited an “environment that hinders collaboration” and “program delays.”
The complaint frames the firing as retaliation under California Labor Code sections 1102.5, the state’s whistleblower protection statute, and 6310, which bars retaliation against employees who report unsafe working conditions.
O’Neill was told she was let go for creating an environment that, “hinders collaboration” as well as “inefficiencies and program delays,” according to the lawsuit.
The first flight of Wisk Aero’s Gen 6 autonomous eVTOL was eventually pushed back to December 2025, when aircraft performed its initial vertical takeoff, hover, and stabilized flight maneuvers at the company’s flight test facility in Hollister, California.
“The team at Wisk has built advanced technologies across flight controls, sensing, navigation, mission management, electric power, systems integration, and many others for a product that is designed to meet a rigorous safety case for a focused concept of operations,” said Brian Yutko, VP of Product Development at Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Chairman of the Board at Wisk. “The engineering methods and technologies are all a valuable source of insight for Boeing as we work together and thoughtfully apply them to the future of flight.”
The case is currently scheduled to come before the Santa Clara County Superior Court for a case management conference on 02DEC2026.
SOURCES: AIN, The Seattle Times, Wisk Aero.
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