Airline bosses furious with cabin crew filmed dancing on wing of Boeing 777
Cabin crew who were filmed dancing and posing on the wing of a plane have infuriated their airline bosses.
Video footage shows three crew members messing about on the wing of a Swiss International Air Lines Boeing 777 as it waits to take off from Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The stunt earlier this month has been described as potentially ‘life-threatening’ by senior staff at the airline, who said it ‘would not be tolerated’.
In the clip, filmed by an airport user and shared widely on social media, a female flight attendant is seen stepping out on to the wing, before dancing and posing for what appears to be someone taking photos.
She is then joined by a male colleague and they strike more poses.
Finally a second man is seen on the wing alone pulling body building poses.
A spokesman for the airline, Michael Pelzer, said: ‘What looks like fun in the video is life-threatening.
‘The wings of the Boeing 777 are about five meters (16.4 feet) high. A fall from that height onto the hard surface can be devastating.
‘This behavior will not be tolerated.’
Mr Pelzer said crew members are only allowed to step onto the wings in case of an emergency, like passenger evacuation.
He added: ‘The behaviour of the employees in the video neither corresponds to our security requirements nor does it reflect the high level of professionalism of our employees.
‘In this case, individual crew members failed to act as role models. We cannot approve of this.’
It’s understood no passengers were yet on board then plane as it waited for its take off slot for a flight to Zurich.
But Pelzer added: ‘We have binding guidelines regarding the online presence of our employees.
‘We expect our employees to always live up to our values and standards on social media as well.’
A chief of cabin crew on the plane, identified only as 33-year-old H., expressed his anger at their actions: “I thought, ‘what the f***? Is that real?
‘In addition to the fact that it is of course extremely dangerous, it is simply unprofessional.’
When asked if there was a pilot among the three employees, H. said: “Certainly not, but you can see the stripes of one of the two cabin chiefs, which makes it worse.’
Another chief of cabin crew, 39-year-old M. said: ‘They are insane! I’m ashamed of my crew, we have no business on the wings.
‘If that had happened to me on the ground in Zurich, I would have sent these people straight home.’
Following the incident, head of cabin crew and vice president of Swiss International Air Lines Martin Knuchel released a video criticising the crew’s behaviour.
Mr Knuchel said: ‘Hey guys, I’ll be honest. I’m angry and disappointed.
‘What if the passengers no longer trust us when they see this video? This has to stop, there must be no more videos likes this.
‘The case will be dealt internally as a disciplinary matter. But to counteract the first rumours, we won’t just fire someone.’
According to reports, a discussion with the three crew members into what happened has already begun.
Last month, an airline pilot was handed a one-year suspended sentence after being found to be six times over the legal alcohol limit.
Meanwhile, a woman was filmed urinating on the floor of a plane after claiming flight attendants would not let her use the toilet for two hours.
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