Flight crews gossip about passengers – sparking a shitstorm in China Swatch watches during the Malaysian LGBT debate

The incident happened on May 21. A passenger complained about the behavior of three flight attendants of the Chinese airline Cathay Pacific. The passenger allegedly heard the flight attendants complain about passengers not speaking English. Specifically, it was about the word “ceiling”. Someone would have said that if you want a blanket but can’t pronounce the word in English, you don’t deserve a blanket. This was followed by many other derogatory comments towards passengers.

After that, a passenger complained to the airline and shared a 31-second audio recording with them. Then you hear someone say, “If you can’t say blanket, you can’t have it” and “Carpet is on the floor.”

“You don’t understand human language”

The passenger also allegedly heard the flight attendants discriminate against passengers who do not understand Cantonese: “You cannot understand human language,” he quotes a flight attendant.

The dispute over the language, or rather the dialect, is a long-running dispute in China. Residents of mainland China speak Mandarin, and residents of Guangdong province (mostly), Hong Kong, and Macau speak Cantonese.

And these two fronts really don’t like each other. Mainland Chinese repeatedly report discriminatory experiences in Hong Kong and vice versa.

The consequences

That’s not all. Passengers who asked for help completing the arrival documents were rejected.

After the incident, Cathay Pacific issued an apology and announced that the flight attendants had been suspended. “We have suspended the affected flight attendants and launched an internal investigation,” she added. They further say that “any inappropriate words and actions” that violate rules and professional ethics will be seriously prosecuted and face consequences.

The results of the investigation should be known in three days, writes “The Standard”.

The reactions

The Chinese newspaper “People’s Daily” was shocked by the incident and commented on the incident. They criticize the airline’s corporate culture, “which worships foreigners and respects Hong Kong people, but looks down on mainland China”. The paper goes on to write: “Cathay Pacific cannot apologize every time, but needs to get to the root of the problem”.

The topic went viral on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform. A hashtag about the dismissal of the three employees was viewed 320 million times. Many users shared their bad experiences with the airline on the platform.

An editorial from China’s state news agency Xinhua said: “The question is how far Cathay Pacific can fly if the old problems remain unchanged.”

Some are also commenting on the latest accusations on Twitter:

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee spoke out on Wednesday, describing the incident as “extremely outrageous and disappointing” and adding that it had “damaged Hong Kong’s image”.

(oo)