Perhaps there’s something about the name that makes it a tempting locale to stash porn, but Air Canada pilots have been warned to stop sneaking porn into the cockpit, after several incidents where the airline found explicit content on planes. Because you know, there are other things to concentrate on when you’re flying a ginormous piece of metal through the sky, thousands of feet above the ground.

According to News.com.au, the airline sent an internal email about the problem last year, but it was only recently obtained by CBC News. It’s the first we’ve heard about it, I’ll say that.

In the email titled “Inappropriate Material in the Embraer Flight Deck,” the chief pilot writes that this is an ongoing problem and it’s time to cut it out.

“I am disappointed to have to raise this issue once again but unfortunately we have some people that have yet to understand the message,” he wrote, adding that the airline was trying to find the people responsible.

“Once they are identified they will be subject to discipline to the full extent of the law and our corporate policies.”

That warning email — the second of two sent in about a year — didn’t stop all the smut smuggling, apparently, as porn was reportedly discovered on a jet as recently as February. Add all the way back six years ago, a female pilot claimed she saw pornographic images glued and tucked into parts of the cockpit, including some violent images.

At that time, Air Canada found “evidence of racial or ethnic prejudice as well as sexual materials in the workplace.”

It’s not a violation of safety rules, however, but Transport Canada’s aviation health and safety occupational officer says the agency did try to get Air Canada to take things more seriously. Because yes, it is hazardous to have that stuff around on the job, and not just because of distractions in the nether regions.

“Pilots are stuffing paper material inside compartments where electrical wiring is and that this is a hazard not to mention that this is a form of workplace violence,” she says.

Air Canada says it was just one plane recently, however, with a spokesman telling CBC News: “The material in question consisted almost entirely of inappropriate business cards and was confined mainly to one aircraft type and route, our Embraer E-90s operating to Las Vegas.”

Oh, well, if it was on the way to Las Vegas, that explains it. But not really.

Air Canada porn: pilots warned to stop sneaking material into the cockpit [News.com.au]