Nok Air apology over pilots’ joke about crashing plane with Yingluck on board
NOK AIR chief executive Patee Sarasin yesterday apologised to Yingluck Shinawatra over controversial Line comments directed at the former prime minister by the airline’s pilots while she was aboard a flight.
“It is a personal opinion. I don’t know whether they were joking but it is unacceptable for the airline because there were other passengers on board,” he said in a TV interview.
Yingluck thanked Patee and other Nok Air executives on her personal Facebook page for their apologies and their promises to take action.
She said she was glad that she and her team arrived home safely.
In her message, Yingluck also said the case would set a precedent to prevent similar events.
Patee yesterday said he wrote a letter of apology to Yingluck, telling her that the event had nothing to do with Nok Air. “The airline is for every Thai and we do not get involved in politics. Passengers’ safety is our first priority and the image of the airline belongs to Thais,” he said.
He said he would take drastic action against the staff involved. “We cannot let go of this because the airline business is about safety,” he said.
He said it was not suitable for uniformed pilots to make political remarks because the airline had nothing to do with politics.
According to reports, a group of assistant pilots exchanged messages on Sunday on Flight DD8005 from Phrae to Don Mueang International Airport.
The chats also contained pictures |of Yingluck and her team getting on |the plane.
A message said “we have prey on board” followed by another message suggesting “Try CFIT”, which is an aviation term that is short for “controlled flight into terrain”.
Nok Air earlier released a statement of apology to Yingluck over the “wrongdoings” of its pilots. The airline said it disapproved of negative staff comments directed at passengers.
Chayika Wongnapachan, of the Pheu Thai Party, said as one of the passengers on the flight she questioned the pilots’ ethics for joking about passenger lives. She demanded the airline take action against the pilots.
Pheu Thai Party caretaker secretary-general Phumtham Wechayachai was also part of Yingluck’s team that visited residents in Phrae. He was at home when his colleagues sent him the Line posts. “They see us as victims and were advised to ‘CFIT’ the plane to destroy customers who are generating income for them,’’ he said.
“I am taken by surprise that people in a job with responsibility for passengers’ lives acted so irresponsibly.”
He said aviation regulations stated that airlines must keep passenger information strictly confidential and protect their lives and assets.
“I cannot believe that an organisation with high responsibility will let people like this carry out their duties,” he said.
Similar events involving airline staff have happened before. In 2012, Cathay Pacific sacked a Thai stewardess after she posted on Facebook about wanting to throw hot coffee in the face of one of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughters.
