After a recording of flight attendants making fun of a passenger who couldn’t speak English was leaked on social media, Cathay Pacific apologized.
On May 21, 2023, flight CX 987 from Chengdu Tianfu International Airport (CTU) to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) experienced the incident.
Due to poor English, a passenger requested the flight attendants for a blanket but mistook the word “blanket” for “carpet”. Apparently seeing the incident, a fellow passenger captured the chat on audio and posted it to Red, one of China’s most popular social media apps.
Currently, the recording has been posted to Tiktok. A voice can be heard saying “carpet,” followed by the words “the carpet is on the floor.” After that, another voice could be heard saying, “If you cannot say blanket, you cannot have it.” Everyone started to chuckle.Regarding the event, Cathay Pacific released a statement, which the Chinese media site Global Times reported. We sincerely regret the passenger’s experience on flight CX987 on Sunday, which drew considerable media attention. The results of our internal probe will be made public in three days, the carrier added.
The audio tape attracted more than 70 million views and comments on Sina Weibo, a Chinese social media site similar to Twitter, where more netizens shared similar experiences of being treated unfairly by Cathay Pacific cabin personnel, according to Global Times.
