Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific said a mid-air prank by the wife of football star David Beckham on a flight to Beijing was “inappropriate.”
Victoria Beckham, 38, posted a picture of herself on Twitter sitting in a cabin crew jump seat on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong pretending to make an announcement on the plane's public address system.
The Twitter snap shot is captioned “Cabin crew prepare for landing! Welcome to Beijing!” and shows her sitting next to a flight attendant who appears to be in on the joke and is pulling a funny face on the April 20 flight.
The prank backfired with people in the aviation industry criticising the former Spice Girl on internet forums and accusing her of putting the flight's safety at risk if it was really about to land.
A Cathay Pacific spokeswoman told dpa it was “inappropriate” for crew to allow passengers to sit in the crew seats.
“We will remind the crew of the Cathay Pacific internal guidelines that the crew seats are to be taken by crew only and those qualified staff travelling as passengers and that passengers should not be allowed to touch any of the aircraft equipment,” she said.
However, the spokeswoman added: “(The picture) was taken during the cruise and not at any critical stage of the flight - such as take-off or landing or when the fasten seat belt sign is on - that could cause a safety concern.”
Beckham was flying to Beijing for the launch of a new special edition Range Rover Evoque she helped provide the design for. - Sapa-dpa