Source: Malaysia Digest Pic: AirAsia - Let's hope they don't get lost in controversy again/Google Images
AIRASIA seems to be flying into one unnecessary controversy after another as the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 still proves fruitless after almost a month of unprecedented multinational operations. Nothing beats AirAsia’s latest controversy. This time, the company displays openly how insensitive they were when it pokes fun on the ill-fated flight MH370, which is believed to have ended in the Indian Ocean, with 239 lives on board. The flight was lost under some mysterious circumstances while on course to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.
One of Malaysia's most experienced commercial pilots, Captain Lim Khoy Hing, a former veteran pilot with MAS, who now is a trainer pilot with AirAsia, wrote for a column in AirAsia’s in-flight magazine, Travel 3Sixty, and in his article, he wrote a statement that can be described as cocky. Capt Lim said AirAsia planes will never get lost in flight.  Pic: The offending paragraph in Travel3Sixty "Pilot training in AirAsia is very thorough and continuous. Rest assured that your Captain is well-trained and the plane will never get lost," was what he wrote in an article published in the just released in-flight magazine. Wow! Was the good Captain trying to imply that pilots in other airlines did not undergo a “very thorough and continuous” training? Or was he implying that they are not well-trained? Whichever way one looks or analyses such a remark, it's most unbecoming and inappropriate, what more against the backdrop of the MH370 tragedy. In fact, to say such a thing even before MH370 go missing can also deemed to be totally unacceptable. Some might regard the timing of Capt Lim's article and MH370 as an unfortunate coincidence as he is believed to have written it sometime ago, but still, it's inexcusable that the editors at the magazine still saw it fit to publish it at this trying time. They have all the time in the world to withdraw the article or as they say in the newsroom, to “spike” it. It's a shame that they didn't. And AirAsia on Saturday (two days ago) came out with an official apology for the blunder that should not have happened in the first place. Its chairman Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, in a damage-control statement, explained that Capt Lim prepared all his articles "months in advance" before the magazine goes to print and the current issue " was printed a month before its issue date". The official statement can be read by clicking the screenshot below: As could be expected, Kamarudin apologised with “deep regret and remorse" for the fiasco but to many people out there, they are just not convinced with his explanation, although we just have to take it for what it is. “It looks like very poor damage control on their side; they can't blame the public if they are not buying the apology statement in its entirety, especially to the family members of everyone onboard MH370, "said one senior media practitioner. But Kamarudin is taking the right action by saying that a disciplinary action will be taken against the magazine's editorial team, adding that AirAsia has taken immediate action to remove the magazine from all its flights, while ensuring that such a blunder does not happen again. AirAsia doesn't seem to learn from two other gaffes it made this year alone. In February, it published an in-house advertisement for its subsidiary's travel insurance company. It reads: “You want your momma, because you’re in hospitals with lousy nurses"......................................................... http://www.malaysiandigest.com/f ... ameful-blunder.html |
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