Indonesia’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia reacted swiftly to a controversy involving one of its pilots who was caught uttering a racial slur towards Chinese people in a viral video.
The video, which was shared over the weekend, shows an unidentified pilot telling a Customs and Excise officer not to take too long with his team’s inspection of the plane’s cabin. An argument ensued between the two, which was generally civilized, safe for one moment in which the pilot told the officer to “go bother the Chinese at Sriwijaya (Air)” with his inspection.
How about this @IndonesiaGaruda racism on your airplane? I believe this is one of your Pilot!
"Kerjain saja CINA2 ITU"
(just work on that Chinese)@IATA @staralliance pic.twitter.com/9BYQy3I2eN— Pak PUCUK #NemoMovement (@sugi_0706) November 19, 2017
Both the CEO of Sriwijaya Air, Chandra Lie, and its president commissioner, Hendry Lie, are Chinese-Indonesian, though it’s unclear who the pilot was referring to in his comment.
After the video went viral, Garuda confirmed that the incident did take place on October 31 just after the plane had landed at Silangit International Airport in Siborong-borong, North Sumatra.
According to Kompas, the pilot initially did not agree to having Customs and Excise officers enter the plane’s cabin to inspect passengers’ and crew’s belongings, as he had never witnessed anything like it in his whole career. However, such an inspection is actually within the right of Customs and Excise, who carried on with their job after the pilot eventually gave his permission.
“Garuda Indonesia deeply regrets the behavior and words of the pilot. Even though the pilot gave permission to the Customs and Excise officer to carry out the inspection inside the plane, the words and behavior of the pilot are deeply regrettable,” said Hengki Heriandono, vice president of Investor Relations and Corporate Secretary at Garuda, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
Hengki added that Garuda has contacted the Customs and Excise office to apologize for the incident. After carrying out an internal investigation, Garuda has also issued an unspecified “stern sanction” against the pilot in accordance to his violation.
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