BA pilot suspended after allegedly taking photos of himself wearing stockings and masturbating at 38,000ft

British Airways has suspended a pilot after photos emerged of a man wearing stockings who appeared to be masturbating at the controls of a plane. Father-of-one Colin Glover has denied he is the individual in the images. BA has temporarily relieved him of his duties.

Serial numbers visible on the control panel in the images suggest the pictures were taken aboard at least two different BA aircraft. They show a figure wearing stockings with his legs on the steering controls. Other images show a man exposing himself in the toilets, a pornographic magazine on the cockpit dashboard, and a number of pornographic playing cards strewn around the cockpit.

Glover has worked for the airline for 26 years. He regularly takes the controls of Boeing 777s on long-haul flights to a range of destinations including America, the Caribbean and the Far East.

Glover's profile and CV on employment site LinkedIn say he has long-haul and short-haul experience on a wide variety of commercial passenger aircraft, ranging from B737s to B777s.

The photos appear to have been taken on a B777. Large airliners now rely heavily on autopilot technology while in flight. Nevertheless, aviation expert Chris Yates told the Sun newspaper: "This is very dangerous if the plane is in mid-flight. If you are flying, you can fly into serious turbulence."

A senior airline source said investigators would examine whether the images could have been shot in a flight simulator. However, Yates said this was unlikely. "You can tell by the lighting it is a plane," he said. "There is also more going on in the control panels than on a ­simulator. It looks [like] a live aircraft."

A former BA pilot also said there were no toilets similar to the one seen in one of the pictures in the airline's simulators. A BA spokesman said: "We are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating."

The images are the latest in a line of embarrassments for BA. Recently two BA pilots were questioned after allegedly getting into a bar-room brawl. Senior first officer Sean Murphy, 39, and pilot Paul Lytollis, 43, reportedly came to blows in a bar in Houston, Texas, during a stopover.

In 2015, Matthew Underwood, a BA worker who delayed a flight for late passengers, was suspended amid allegations that he was taking bribes. In 2013, a drunken cabin-crew employee ran amok while travelling off-duty on a flight, prompting complaints from other passengers.