Nok Air has suspended the co-pilot from duty for two weeks over a Line chat among pilot friends saying former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was on board the flight he would fly from Phrae to Bangkok on Sunday.
Nok Air deputy CEO for operation Flying Officer Norahat Ploiyai said the co-pilot was questioned over the Line chat.
He said that he had no bad intentions and the Line message he sent was just a joke among the group of pilot friends.
However the deputy CEO said the messages he sent were inappropriate and therefore he was suspended from duty temporarily for 1-2 weeks.
But for the person who sent the “CFIT” message in the Line chat, it was found to be a pilot trainee of AirAsia.
CFIT is an acronym for Controlled Flight Into Terrain – technical language for crashing an airplane.
Thai AirAsia chief executive Tassapon Bijleveld said after calling an urgent meeting with pilots that the person who posted “CFIT” is not yet a pilot but is still under pilot training course.
Initially his training course was suspended and would go back to the beginning for attitude test.
If he passes the attitude test, the airline is ready to accept him to enter pilot training course again, the chief executive said.
Meanwhile the director of the Civil Aviation Department Sqn Ldr Alongkot Poolsuk said the existing civil aviation crime law can deal only with anyone who makes statements, serious or not, about a potential aviation threat.
It does not cover posts in the social media, he said.
But for ethics reason, this was the matter of each responsible airline to investigate and tackle those offendees, he said and added the the Department only has the duty to inspect and issue pilot licence.
But he said the Department has sent notification to all airlines to tighten control of their personnel on Line chat that any comment must not threaten aviation safety.
