Lion Air got hit by a storm of social media controversy this week when a passenger, Lambertus Maengkong, reported that one of its pilots offered a widowed air hostess to passengers to compensate for a delay, before hearing moans coming out of the plane’s cockpit. The airline has since played down the accusation, saying that the pilot only wished an air hostess a happy birthday over the plane’s PA system.
But Lambertus Maengkong is not backing down and is sticking to his original story.
“When I went on board, there was no happy birthday wish. What truly happened, in my view, was horrifying for me and the other passengers,” Lambertus said yesterday, as quoted by Tribunnews yesterday.
“There were mentions of a widow [air hostess] who was pretty and flat-nosed, and that was repeated over and over again on [the plane’s] PA system. That shouldn’t be appropriate.”
He also reiterated that he heard moans on the flight, only this time he said it came from the back of the plane instead of over the PA system as previously reported.
“All of a sudden, I heard someone [audibly] whisper, ‘hey, come here dong,’ That’s when I heard moans. So [the moans] didn’t come from the PA system, rather we the passengers heard it directly,” Lambertus said.
Lambertus lamented that the pilot and crew seemingly didn’t take their professions seriously, which could’ve been dangerous for the passengers on board.
While Lambertus has stuck to his story, which was filed as an official complaint to the Transportation Ministry, no other passenger has thus far come forward and reported the same case.
Whoever is telling the truth, Lion Air has suspended the pilot in question – whose identity still hasn’t been revealed – from flying for at least two weeks.
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