Cathay Pilot Fired for Unauthorized Stunt
February 25 2008 09:06 am
Cathay Pacific’s chief 777 pilot was fired after scaring the living crap out of the airline’s chairman. The pilot was flying a new 777 back from Seattle to Hong Kong with 50 passengers (staff members, primarily) on board, including the airline’s chairman. After takeoff he circled back and flew about 30 feet over the runway without the landing gear down. He had told the airport about the maneuver, but did not tell his passengers (which, as I mentioned, included the airline’s chairman). As I’m relatively certain they all thought they were going to crash, passengers were not amused, and, upon return to Hong Kong, fired the $500,000-a-year pilot.
The linked article includes a photo of the plane a few feet off the ground with no landing gear down.
Avi Greengart on 25 Feb 2008 at 9:29 am #
[spills coffee] Maaaaaaavrick!
iahphx on 25 Feb 2008 at 10:08 am #
Well, what’s more shocking: the fly-by, the firing, or the fact that the chief pilot of Cathay Pacific brings home 500K a year?
I’m going for the third!
onlinetravelreview on 25 Feb 2008 at 10:33 am #
Two quick things:
1) I tried not to make a Top Gun reference, so I’ll thank Avi for taking care of that…
2) I also spit out my coffee at the $500k salary. Well done!
PlaneFanDC on 25 Feb 2008 at 1:41 pm #
Check out this link for a slightly different take on the story. Sounds like this pilot would still be employed had it not been for the internet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/25/theairlineindustry.usa
maxe on 25 Feb 2008 at 1:57 pm #
Could the 500 Thou have been Hong Kong dollars? That would bring it down to about 65000 US Pesos…
TedassicaWala on 01 May 2008 at 7:11 am #
Hi all!
G’night