Nok Air's sacked pilot claims flight cancellation on Sunday stems from pilot shortage, not strike



BANGKOK: -- A sacked pilot of Nok Air airline complained today that he was unfairly dismissed and he said the cancellation of nine flights on Sunday did not entirely stem from pilots’ strike but from acute shortage of pilots.

Mr Sanit Kongpetch, former manager of Nok Aair’s aviation standard maintenance division and also a pilot, claimed that he was not on duty on Sunday and had just recovered from illness when he was asked by the company to report to work.

However, he said that he told the supervisor in charge of the pilots that he was not mentally fit to fly and asked to return to rest but eventually he was sacked without a proper inquiry.

As a pilot, he insisted that a pilot who was stressed or sick should not be allowed to fly because it might affect the safety of the passengers.

The embattled pilot also dismissed the management’s claim that the pilots who went on strike on Sunday because they were dissatisfied because they failed the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) standard test.

“EASA test is meant to test the company’s aviation safety standard and not to test the pilots,” said Mr Sanit. He also dismissed the claim that some pilots went on strike, pointing out that over 100 flights were not affected that day.

As most of the pilots have been with the company for over a decade and he himself has been a pilot for 20 years, Mr Sanit said the pilots would never hold the passengers hostage by going on strike.

He claimed that Nok Air was experiencing “brain drain” among its pilots because pilots’ pay in Nok Air is the lowest of all the airlines.

Although he has never sued anybody in his life, Mr Sanit admitted that he was considering the legal option to seek justice because he has a family to take care of.

Nok Air CEO Pathee Sarasin however gave another version of the story regarding Mr Sanit. He said Sanit signed up to fly but 15 minutes before he was due to fly he disappeared and could not be reached while the co-pilot was waiting in the cockpit.

He said there was no way for the company to find a substitute for Mr Sanit within 15 minutes and the flight had to be cancelled.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/151184


-- Thai PBS 2016-02-17

Typical Thai. Now even pilots are trying to save face.

Will there ever be honestly in the country? I doubt it when everyone twists and turns even the most simple situation for self benefit.

SAVE FACE! MUST SAVE ANY FACE AT ANY COST!

This is yet another of many daily examples of part of what is so wrong in Thailand.

People just cannot tell the truth. We almost never have a good idea of events because nobody is capable of being perfectly honest. We get vague comments or finger pointing and are left to educated guessing.

My educated guess is that the pilot's story is less believable than the story that they are failing EASA audits. But rather than stand up like men and get on with retraining, they threaten to sue each other.

Typical Thainess on display as usual

Seems to me this company is disfunctional from the very top to the very bottom.

Pilots cannot be interchangeable with airline management. Obviously this airline has some problems and the worldwide shortage of pilots will definitely affect airlines at the lower end of the pay scale.

Saving face is a western term. It does not exist in Asian culture.

Tell lies and you're a liar. Lose your temper you're a hot head, convicted of a crime you're a criminal.

Saving face...hollox...call it what it is....stupidity. Mention saving face. You may just as well declare your own stupidity.

Seems to me this company is disfunctional from the very top to the very bottom.

Indeed. I've flown with them a few times but will not do so in the future.

Edited to say that who knows if their domestic competitors are any better?

Edited February 17, 201610 yr by MZurf

Seems to me this company is disfunctional from the very top to the very bottom.

Indeed. I've flown with them a few times but will not do so in the future.

Edited to say that who knows if their domestic competitors are any better?

Unfortunately all the cheap charlie LCC's are all the same

Cheap Charly companies can only compete, safely, on staff costs.

Which means the staff you can hire are not really high class, I guess.

Many pilots in the west have to hire planes to keep their licences valid.

But probably do not want to work for all companies that pay low wages and may be iffy in lots of other things.

Hence the pilot shortage?

Saving face is a western term. It does not exist in Asian culture

It's interesting that people post such utter nonsense and expect others to believe it.

nar dtaek

As I said. Declare your own stupidity

Nok Aair’s aviation standard maintenance division

I wonder if it would make any difference if these guys go missing or on strike for a week.

Saving face is a western term. It does not exist in Asian culture.

Tell lies and you're a liar. Lose your temper you're a hot head, convicted of a crime you're a criminal.

Saving face...hollox...call it what it is....stupidity. Mention saving face. You may just as well declare your own stupidity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)

"The concept of face is, of course, Chinese in origin" (Ho 1975:867), yet many languages have "face" terms that metaphorically mean "prestige; honor; reputation". Marcel Mauss,"

Now so I'm clear on the logic The strike didn't cause the shortage of pilots, But Nok air wouldn't let unqualified pilots fly the planes that they are unqualified to fly. Well I guess the mentally unfit part he got right. For low cost airlines to operate effectively They should cut costs at management level Qualified pilots should be paid well.

Seems to me this company is disfunctional from the very top to the very bottom.

Indeed. I've flown with them a few times but will not do so in the future.

Edited to say that who knows if their domestic competitors are any better?

Unfortunately all the cheap charlie LCC's are all the same

They have: Nok Fan Club, Nok Smile, Nok Smile Plus.

Ask 3 different staff members what the benefits are and:

- 3 different answers.

- only for Thai people.

- re Nok Smile: 'No we don't have that, your thinking of Thai Smile Airline'.

Ask questions to many of their check-in staff at Don Muang and they can't speak English.

At the boarding gate, maybe already 15 minutes after boarding should have been completed, nothing happened yet, ask how long the flight will be delayed:

- 'Mai pben rai' - 'not important'

- Ask the question but get ignored - staff just keep chatting to their colleagues.

- 'Not allowed to make announcements'.

- 'Pilot is the only person who make these announcements'.

And very often boarding pass and ID not checked.

I wholeheartedly agree with you in more ways than one. It's unbelievable that some Numpties in here have the audacity to say that people in Thailand or albeit Asia never lean toward saving face at all costs. If this was true most of the murdered Farangs over many years would be walking about alive and many more Burmese/Cambodians would be free men.

Shame on these ex-pat loudmouths who seem to have short memories when it suits them.

Same old song I'm afraid from these pathetic creatures spouting toxic verbiage for the sake of it and makes my blood boil.

Saving face is a western term. It does not exist in Asian culture

It's interesting that people post such utter nonsense and expect others to believe it.

nar dtaek

As I said. Read a book. It does not exist. It is an idiom, a concept. Non existent. An excuse idiots use to excuse idiotic behavior.

Man shoot neighbor in loss of face parking dispute. Garbage. Man shoots neighbor because he's a psychotic murderer.

Fish seller blinds tourist and chops off his left ear. Loss of face? Nah.. Mad man cannot control himself and gets ten years in gook because he's a dangerous criminal.

Got it now...ah there you go. Well done you.

SAVE FACE! MUST SAVE ANY FACE AT ANY COST!

Yep, even if it means telling absurd bare faced lies that to many make them look even more stupid and the loss of face is worse,, to them as long as they don't admit the issue in question thats all that matters.

I had a Thai boss once, he was asking me a question on whether I had attended the internal meeting he asked me to attend. I said no because the gentleman I was to meet had not returned my emails, or messages yet. he then called the gentleman in question and asked him why he had not replied and why the meeting had not yet taken place,,, on the stop he lied and said "I didn't want a meeting with him because he physically threatened me!"

i had never spoken to, seen or met this guy in my life but this is what he said,, I was speechless. I told my boss he was a complete liar, at which he said "i don't know" simply because he did not want confrontation and use him less of face..

Absolutely ridiculous,, it is holding this country so far back it's untrue.

Cheap Charly companies can only compete, safely, on staff costs.

Utter nonsense. They save by not having city centre ticket offices, quick and efficient turnaround of aircraft (which sometimes leads to later departures/arrivals as the margins are small), not providing food and free drinks on board. I could go on.