American Airlines apology after inflight magazine’s ‘drunk pilot’ gaffe
Monday, 07 Apr, 2017
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American Airlines has been forced into issuing an apology to employees after an ‘ill judged’ feature was published in the airline’s inflight magazine.
The March issue of ‘American Way’ featured an article on an Australian mobile bar service which uses decommissioned airline drinks carts. In the photos it shows its two founders dressed as pilots with a drink in hand and clearly on their way to getting drunk.
The two images angered American’s pilot union which said it ‘reflects extremely poor judgement.’
After a number of complaints vice president of global communications Ron DeFeo sent a message to all employees.
"A huge apology to our team and especially our coworkers who are pilots. … We know that a photo depicting pilots drinking in uniform is not appropriate. Even in jest, if that’s what this is, our aviators put safety first and this is never an area where humor works. Full stop," he said.
It was ‘appalling and disrespectful to the aviation profession’ he added.
Like most inflight magazines, American outsources the production of ‘American Way’ but failed to spot the damaging photos during an internal proofing prior to publication.
The magazines were pulled from planes last week.
"The offending photos were on display to our passengers for the entire month of March. The magazines may be gone, but the damage is certainly done," Allied Pilots Association president Capt. Dan Carey said in a message to union members.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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