Flight attendant Ericka Paige Diehl is experiencing professional turbulence for a photo shoot she staged in her plane's engine shortly before takeoff.
ABC affiliate WLS Chicago was contacted early this week by a passenger who spotted Deihl posing in front of the turbine blades. The news team soon found the photos on Diehl's Facebook page, and reached out to Spirit Airlines for comment.
In response, one executive stated that "the activity portrayed in the photo absolutely goes against Spirit policy."
Diehl, 41, said that she wasn't "at liberty to discuss" the photos, however many pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics from across the industry spoke out in her defense.
"The photo of the flight attendant in the engine isn’t a problem. We all take them," Heather Poole, a flight attendant and author of the New York Times bestseller "Cruising Attitude" wrote on Twitter.
"The time that she decided to take it could be an issue," she added.
Poole also tweeted out her own engine photo from years past, and retweeted a number of fellow flight attendants who posted their own photos.