Just when people thought things were somewhat back to normal, Cathay Pacific Airlines said ‘not yet’ after firing three pilots recently. The pilots were on a layover in Frankfurt, Germany when they allegedly contracted the virus, prompting the airline to release them from their duties.
“After investigation into these cases, regrettably, the findings indicate a serious breach of requirements during crew overseas layovers,” a statement from the airline said. “The individuals concerned are no longer employed by Cathay Pacific.”
Details have not been released on what exactly the pilots did to ‘breach the requirements,’ but it is said that they violated the airline’s policy of leaving their hotel rooms while on the layover.
“The safety and well-being of our customers, employees and the community remain our absolute priority,” Cathay Pacific further said.
While this is said to be an isolated event as far as airline employees being infected, more than 150 employees had to be quarantined for three weeks because of the three cases, in addition to their close friends and family members who may have had close contact.
“As a result of these findings, we have requested the government to review the decision to place certain groups into government quarantine,” Cathay said.
The airline will now begin implementing even stricter rules and testing when airline employees and crew are outside the Hong Kong base.
“The professionalism, compliance and resilience of all our employees in upholding safe operations throughout this period has been exceptional, and we believe these cases are isolated incidents.”