Cathay Pacific flight attendants ridiculed non-English speaking passengers during a flight. After an internal investigation, the airline fired the flight attendants.
Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific has fired three flight attendants after they were accused of making fun of the plane’s passengers’ English.
A passenger flying from China’s Chengdu to Hong Kong accused flight attendants of discriminating against people who do not speak English, Reuters reports. The reason was the request of passengers to give them blankets. Instead of the English word “blanket” (blanket), the passengers said “carpet” (carpet). The wrong word caused laughter from the stewardesses serving the flight.
Attendants of Cathay Pacific Airlines triggered anger among Chinese netizens for discriminating non-English speakers. An audio revealed chats of flight attendants making fun of some passengers, “If you cannot say blanket in English, you can not have it.” @cathaypacific pic.twitter.com/IScvnXBdMu
— The Tide (@TideNewsZJ) May 23, 2023
In an audio clip circulated on social media, flight attendants can be heard saying, “You’ll get a blanket if you can say that word in English. The carpet is on the floor, you can cover yourself with it.
Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Ronald Lam said: “In line with company policy, we have terminated our working relationship with the three flight attendants referred to in the audio.”
“I would like to once again sincerely apologize to the customer and other passengers for the incident,” Lam said. He added that he leads a working group that checks the quality of services. “We take this as a valuable lesson and strive to provide our customers with a good travel experience,” he added.
The incident sparked outrage in China’s state media. According to Reuters, the People’s Daily newspaper accused the airline of worshiping the English language and neglecting the Chinese language.
@cathaypacific
My English is quite good, can I have flight attendants of @cathaypacific kneel to serve me?
— 公评⁸ (@shpgm888) May 25, 2023
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China. English is still the official language along with Chinese.