What qualifies as employee misconduct at your workplace? Lateness? Insubordination? When you’re a pilot delivering a wide-body jetliner, the opportunities for improper behavior increase exponentially.
Cathay Pacific Airways has fired a pilot after he buzzed a U.S. airfield without permission while taking delivery of a Boeing 777-300ER passenger jet.
The Hong-Kong-based carrier is investigating the fly-by of Paine Field, 30 miles north of Seattle and home to a Boeing plant, according to wire service reports.
This sort of base buzzing has been done before, but only with prior permission. The unidentified pilot didn’t get that permission.
The airline’s chairman, Christopher Pratt, was on the plane when the pilot swooped back over the Boeing plant shortly after taking off.
Here’s why anyone being buzzed by a 777-300ER has something to be worried about: It’s 242 feet long and weighs about 350 tons.
Want your own 777-300ER? It’ll cost you $264 million; rogue pilot not included.
