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Garuda Indonesia pilot grounded over comment on Surabaya bombings
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A Garuda Indonesia aircraft takes off from Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali in June 2017. (Antara/Fikri Yusuf)
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pilot of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is grounded over a comment posted on social media about recent suicide bombings in Surabaya.
The decision to ground the pilot was made on Friday.
“We will further investigate the pilot, and whether [his statement] is right or not. We will also investigate the motive and background for his social media post,” said Garuda Indonesia vice president corporate secretary Hengki Heriandono over the weekend, as reported by kompas.com.
Read also: Police nab ‘conspiracy theorists’ following Surabaya bombings
Hengki’s statement referred to a post allegedly made by a pilot identified only as OGT, who posted the comment “dudududuuuuu" in response to a Facebook post by user Sofyan, who, among other things, said the suicide bombers were only victims, as he believed they had only been told to send the packages to the three churches.
Sofyan also apparently believed the bombers had never gone to Syria, as stated by the police.
“Dudududuuuuu” was a vague expression perceived among netizens as supporting terrorism, and who responded to OGT's shared post with bullying and anger. Some netizens accused him of being a radical.
Hengki said Garuda would also investigate the relations between the pilot and a woman that had also become a topic of discussion in social media. He assured that the airline would punish the pilot according to internal guidelines.
“We can assure you that the pilot will be punished based on the corporation’s policy, particularly related to his alleged deviant behavior and ethics violation,” Hengki added.
He said Garuda also reminded the company’s employees about the need to pay attention to ethics when posting comments in social media, particularly statements related to ethnic, religious, racial or social groups issues. (bbn)
