(Bloomberg) — Sichuan Airlines Corp. suspended one of its employees after contentious comments he posted online were unearthed, highlighting growing jitters in China after a deadly air crash last month.
An internet user took to Weibo on April 10 to ask the carrier to prevent the staff member in question — identifiable as an ethnic Mongolian Chinese national called Ayingga — from flying because of his politically sensitive posts, some of which dated from 2015.
“How did the aviation political review end up being like this?” wrote the poster, whose Weibo account has about 52,000 followers. “Is this person going to crash into a building with a full plane of passengers?”
The Sichuan Airlines’ employee is accused of applauding the Nanjing Massacre, saying the people who died deserved their fate. The posts also included racial slurs against ethnic Han Chinese as well as a photo of the young man posing under what appears to be the national flag of the Mongolian People’s Republic.
The original screenshots couldn’t be independently verified by Bloomberg. Ayingga couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
The incident highlights unease among the nation’s traveling public in the wake of a fatal crash late last month. A Boeing Co. jet flown by China Eastern Airlines Corp. fell from the skies over China’s southwestern province of Guangxi on March 21, killing all 132 people on board. It’s also a reminder of a growing “cancel culture” that in some cases has seen nationalist trolls scour the internet for evidence, often going back many years.
Sichuan Airlines issued a statement Sunday confirming that the posts were from one of its employees, although it didn’t name him. The “inappropriate remarks” were made while the employee was at university and he has been suspended and is under investigation, according to the statement.
Representatives from Sichuan Airlines didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China released a statement last week in which it reiterated efforts to ensure civil aviation safety and mentioned the need for airlines to assist employees with difficulties, including mental health issues they may have in their work and personal lives.
Read more: China Aviation Official Denies Rumors Over China Eastern Crash
Companies in the aviation industry should especially conduct some “ideology work” among pilots, the CAAC statement added without elaborating.
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