Agence France-Presse
Bangkok, June 13: Thai budget airline carrier Nok Air apologised Monday after one of its pilots joked about crashing a plane carrying ousted Premier Yingluck Shinawatra. The gaffe highlights how hatred towards the Shinawatra political clan still runs deep two years after Yingluck’s administration was toppled by a military coup. The pilot’s comments were made in a social media chat group used by Nok Air pilots that was later leaked. In it a pilot posted a picture of Yingluck about to board their Nok Air flight over the weekend. One chat member responded with “We have prey on board”. Another then added “CFIT”.
CFIT is an aviation acronym for “Controlled Flight Into Terrain”, a term used to describe when a pilot unintentionally crashes a plane that has no technical problems. Panthongtae Shinawatra — the son of Yingluck’s brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled as Premier by a 2006 coup — posted the leaked chat on his Facebook. “Even if the messages about passengers were just kidding, they count as illegal and unacceptable,” he wrote. Nok Air’s CEO Patee Sarasin wrote an open apology to Yingluck, saying the pilot’s comments did not reflect the company’s.