August 27th 2023.
A video of three cabin crew members dancing and posing on the wing of a Swiss International Air Lines Boeing 777 as it waited to take off from Buenos Aires in Argentina has caused major outrage among airline bosses. The potentially “life-threatening” stunt, according to senior staff at the airline, was captured on film by an airport user and shared widely on social media.
The footage shows a female flight attendant step out onto the wing and dance and pose for what appears to be someone taking photos. She is then joined by a male colleague and finally a second man is seen on the wing alone pulling bodybuilding poses.
Michael Pelzer, a spokesman for the airline, said in response to the video: “What looks like fun in the video is life-threatening. The wings of the Boeing 777 are about five meters high. A fall from that height onto the hard surface can be devastating. This behavior will not be tolerated.”
Pelzer also noted that crew members are only allowed to step onto the wings in the event of an emergency, such as passenger evacuation. He added that 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”. Mr. Pelzer said that the airline has “binding guidelines” concerning the online presence of its employees and that they “expect our employees to always live up to our values and standards on social media as well”.
The stunt has been met with major disapproval by members of the cabin crew, including 33-year-old H. and 39-year-old M. Chief of Cabin Crew H. expressed his anger, saying he thought “what the f***? Is that real?” He added that it is “unprofessional” and that “if that had happened to me on the ground in Zurich, I would have sent these people straight home”.
Chief of Cabin Crew M. also condemned the stunt, saying “they are insane! I’m ashamed of my crew, we have no business on the wings”. Martin Knuchel, the head of cabin crew and vice president of Swiss International Air Lines, also released a video criticising the crew’s behaviour. He said that if passengers see the video, “they may no longer trust us”.
The airline has since begun an internal disciplinary process with the three crew members involved. This incident follows last month’s incident in which 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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