Just takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch – just ask budget carrier Nok Air.
The airline was trashed by a prominent politico for ordering all passengers off a soon-to-depart flight on Tuesday after one got belligerent with staff, prompting its CEO to publicly explain what happened.
Nok Air evacuated the passengers of flight DD7825, departing Nakhon Sri Thammarat to Bangkok at 6:45pm, when one male passenger reportedly refused to show his boarding pass at the entrance and shoved past a flight attendant to find his assigned seat, said Patee Sarasin, Chief Executive Officer of Nok Air.
After all passengers were off the plane, security guards boarded to take the angry passenger off for questioning.
The incident was criticised online after Phitsanulok Warong Dechgitvigrom, a member of the former senate on board the flight, complained about it online.
“I think Nok Air’s cabin crew showed a lack of experience by making that decision,” Warong wrote on Facebook. “They should have referred to the aviation regulations first before inviting the passengers off the aircraft. They cannot just announce that one passenger is violent and refused to show his boarding pass. That sounded like a personal judgment to me.”
Warong’s wisdom might have benefited from his own review of airline security measures.
Removing the passengers from a flight to deal with a belligerent passenger is standard practice to avoid risking harm or injury during a security action, Patee explained yesterday.
According to the cabin crew, the passenger was butthurting because staff told him to enter through the plane’s rear entrance, which was already closed. Poor baby had to walk back and board the flight via the front entrance, Morning News reported.
Photo: Warong Dechgitvigrom
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