The story of how a Lion Air pilot allegedly offered an air hostess to passengers to compensate for the flight’s delay, before ‘moans’ were heard coming out of the cockpit, went viral recently, only for Lion Air to quickly deny the allegations of extreme misconduct.
But now Lion Air has backed down from their denial and admitted the airline conducted an investigation, which found that a copilot on a Surabaya – Denpasar flight on November 14 did engage in unethical conduct.
However, according to Lion Air, said misconduct is not nearly as severe as previous reports made it out to be. According to them, the pilot apparently only wished a happy birthday to an air hostess over the plane’s PA system while flying.
“The copilot wished happy birthday to his air hostess friend who was on the same flight. So, it was like giving a surprise. That was a violation of announcement and ethical codes,” said Lion Air Director Edward Sirait, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
Edward also admitted that the copilot mentioned that the air hostess was single over the PA, but at no point did the copilot say the air hostess was a widow and that he was offering her to passengers.
“So [the reports about the copilot] offering a widow, that is not true at all. The air hostess is actually single,” Edward said.
As for the ‘moans’ heard on the plane’s PA, Edward had a convenient explanation for that, too.
“People say the copilot was drunk, but that is doubtful. If he were drunk, the captain wouldn’t have flown the plane. It could be that the copilot spoke too close to the mic, so it sounded like moaning,” he said.
In any case, Lion Air has assured the public that the copilot – whose identity wasn’t revealed – has been suspended from flying for at least two weeks.
