A Cathay Pacific pilot lost his job for flying a Boeing 777-300ER at extremely low altitude over the runway at a Boeing plant in Washington. He was picking up the newly-delivered jet and decided to pull an air-show move, circling back for a low fly-by. Back in Hong Kong, his employer summarily handed him his walking papers.
The video of the fly-byis really a choppy collection of still photos. More photos taken by a planespotter are here.
But did the pilot really deserve to lose his job over this? It was a stunt, yes. But there were no passengers involved, and this wasn’t at a regular commercial airport. Slap him on the wrist, sure, teach him some etiquette, but fire him? It seems like someone at Cathay woke up on the wrong side of the first class suite.
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February 29th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Actually, there were CX VIPs on board. He only lost his job when this ‘video’ showed up on youtube. I think it’s warranted. There were pax at risk.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Any pilot that shows this much poor judgment is not a pilot I want to fly with.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:16 am
An aircraft isn’t a pilot’s personal toy.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It looks more like there was reputation at risk — the VIPs didn’t complain when it happened but only when it was public…
February 29th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Jail. Because flogging isn’t available.
1> There were pax involved.
2> There were people on the ground.
3> There is no way this was a “one time impulse.”
-F
February 29th, 2008 at 11:20 am
With VIPs on board, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilot was put up to doing this by one of them. Now I guess he’s the fall guy.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
If I owned a company and just took possesion of a multimillion dollar asset, I wouldn’t want anybody taking risks with it. I agree 100% with Tom. I don’t want a pilot with that little judgment flying my flight.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I think the execs wanted to have a fun flight and suggested this to the pilot or he sensed their uplifted spirits and felt this would be appropriate. Which it probably was with just the execs (not regular pax) on the plane.
However, once this leaked, it was a matter of reputation and safety and Cathay had no choice really. They had to do damage control.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Well, after the YouTube video hit the blog-o-sphere, someone needed to go – and the pilot is the obvious fall guy.
The CEO on the plane likely egged the pilot on, but the pilot still had a choice.
But, I agree with Scott – this was all about damage control. Too bad the guy didn’t just lose his job – he can probably kiss his career goodbye too.
Too bad Matt Cawby caught the whole thing on video:
http://www.gogirlfriend.com/travel-news/matt-cawby-plane-spotter-update-7490
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
If it was all the pilot’s decision, give him the boot. It’s just not something you do.
If it was a suggestion by a VIP, then he better appeal and win, and if he does not, he should go to news agencies with an expose. If the company thought the stunt made them look bad, the cover-up will be absolutely devastating.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Ok. As an employee at Boeing Field in Seattle, I must weigh in on this issue of the CX flyby. First of all, contrary to what was printed in the original post, Boeing Field is a commerical airfield. And yes, as others have stated, there were pax onboard the plane; as a matter of fact, the president of CX was one of the numerous VIPS on that flight. The fact remains that this was a stupid stunt–whether or not it was inspired, or endorsed by the key personnel onboard, and the pic did not have pre-authorization to perform the flyby. Also, for those of you who were not able to witness this stunt first hand as I did, you must realize that the pilot flew a mere 20 feet above the runway! A routine flyby would not have been authorized below 50ft. The pilot is fortunate he was merely terminated from CX, without his license and certification being revoked. Stupid is, as stupid does.