Well, this is an interesting story that happened on board the Cathay Pacific flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong where some of the cabin crew’s actions towards passengers were totally unacceptable.
Cathay Pacific Cabin Crew Made Fun Of Mainland Chinese Passengers
The incident occurred on Cathay Pacific flight CX897 from Chengdu (CTU) to Hong Kong (HKG) on May 21, 2023. One passenger recorded the jokes made by some of the cabin crew during the flight and shared them on Chinese social media and it went viral.
Based on the recording, it can be heard in English and Cantonese about a situation when one mainland Chinese passenger requested a blanket but that passenger asked for carpet. Since he or she is a non-English native speaker, this kind of communication mistake can occur frequently but the cabin crew’s joke was way too much.
Here’s a recording from a passenger.
You can clearly hear the cabin crew mocking the passenger by saying “If you cannot pronounce blanket in English, you cannot have it, the carpet is on the floor feel free if you want to lie on it.”
In addition, one cabin crew said in Cantonese that the passengers cannot understand the human language when reminding them to stay seated when the seatbelt sign is turned on.
Cathay Pacific Fires Three Cabin Crews; Issues Apology
As the recording went viral on the social media platform, Cathay Pacific took immediate action to investigate and issued an apology statement on Weibo, one of the biggest social media in China.
Opening the investigation this Monday, the airline immediately suspended the three cabin crews and promised to provide an update within three days. And as of now, the crew members involved are fired for their unruly behavior.
Summary
A Cathay Pacific cabin crew on a flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong was overheard making fun of mainland Chinese passengers who had a language barrier and this created quite a public backlash. The airline immediately opened an investigation regarding this case and fired three cabin crews this week.
I understand the difficulties experienced by people working in the service field such as cabin crew since they meet hundreds of thousands of people with different mindsets. While it is normal for them to chat about the situation but this one crossed the line way too much.
