Mexican pilot fired after singer invited into cockpit
A Mexican airline pilot has been fired for allowing two passengers into the cockpit and permitting one to take the controls of the aircraft mid-flight.
The pilot of a Magnicharters flight from Cancun to Mexico City admitted letting well-known singer Esmeralda Ugalde, 23 and actress friend Samadhi Zendejas into the cockpit.
The incident came to light after pictures of Ugalde at the controls were posted to her Twitter account.
Ugalde, who is the sister of Latin Grammy award winning singer Ana Barbara, has about 40,000 Twitter followers.
After the pictures went viral, the pilot, who has not been named, was identified and dismissed by Magnicharters, which operates leisure flights throughout Mexico.
"We cannot allow a pilot to make this kind of mistake, it is just not allowed. Even if the autopilot was working it is not allowed to do something like this," said company spokesman Jorge Badia.
"We are a serious company and we are deeply saddened about the fact that one of our staff behaved in this way. Flight law dictates visitors are not allowed to enter the cabin during the flight."
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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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