"Don't You Even Know 'Blanket' in English?" Hong Kong Flight Attendant Mocks Chinese Passenger... Mainland Outrage Erupts

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Hong Kong's largest airline Cathay Pacific, embroiled in controversy over 'mocking passengers,' has issued an apology with its CEO stepping forward.

On the 24th, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in Hong Kong, Ronald Lam, CEO of Cathay Pacific, stated in a press release that the flight attendants who made discriminatory remarks against mainland Chinese passengers have been dismissed.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in Hong Kong on the 24th, Ronald Lam, CEO of Cathay Pacific, stated in a press release that flight attendants who made discriminatory remarks against passengers from mainland China have been dismissed.
[Photo by AP·Yonhap News]

CEO Lam explained, "I want to reiterate our zero-tolerance approach to serious violations of company policies and codes of conduct," adding, "There will be no compromise on such violations." This marks the third apology issued by Cathay Pacific in the past two days.

Previously, Cathay Pacific had released a statement on behalf of the company announcing the suspension of the involved employees and the commencement of an investigation into the incident, along with an apology. However, as public backlash did not subside, CEO Lam personally issued a statement and apologized within hours.

The controversy began when a passenger on flight CX987 on the 21st posted a video on social media containing audio recordings of flight attendants speaking disparagingly about passengers.

According to the released audio recording, the flight attendants mocked a passenger who mistakenly asked for a "carpet" instead of a blanket, saying, "If you can't say blanket, you won't get one. The carpet is on the floor." [Photo by Pixabay]

According to the released audio, the flight attendants told a passenger who asked for a blanket but mistakenly said "carpet" instead of "blanket" in English, "If you can't say 'blanket' in English, you won't get a blanket. The carpet is on the floor, so if you want to lie down, you can lie down as much as you want."

Additionally, the recording revealed the attendants mocking passengers who did not understand Cantonese by saying, "They can't understand human speech." The standard Chinese language is Putonghua (Mandarin), while Cantonese is commonly spoken in southern Guangdong Province and Hong Kong.

This sparked intense discrimination controversy within China. The Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), criticized, "They worship foreigners and respect Hong Kong people, but look down on mainlanders," and stated, "Cathay Pacific should not simply apologize repeatedly but must seriously correct their mistakes and establish rules and discipline," fueling ongoing controversy.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.