KLM's 'lavatory for crew members only' sparks outrage

KLM apologises after airliner crew's coronavirus toilet note sparks outrage in South Korea. Picture: KLM.

KLM apologises after airliner crew's coronavirus toilet note sparks outrage in South Korea. Picture: KLM.

Published Feb 14, 2020

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KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France

KLM, offered a public apology on Friday after a crew

member sparked online outrage by posting a sign in Korean saying

passengers on a recent flight were not allowed to use a toilet

because of the new coronavirus.

Photos of the handwritten sign saying "lavatory for crew

members only" went viral in South Korea this week after a

passenger on a 10-hour flight from Amsterdam to Seoul's Incheon

airport on Monday shared the images online.

The passenger accused KLM of discriminating against South

Korean passengers because the sign was only in Korean.

"Dear KLM... Today, you made it quite clear that you

discriminate against race. Using Corona Virus as an excuse. You

owe my friend and Korea a HUGE apology," wrote one Twitter user,

whose posts in English and Korean about the incident gathered

thousands of retweets and likes.

The hashtag BoycottKLM was trending on Korean Twitter.

On Friday, executives with KLM bowed as they publicly

apologised at a news conference in Seoul, saying they take

allegations of discrimination "very seriously" and promising to

prevent it from happening again.

"This is a human mistake, and we don't take it lightly,"

said Guillaume Glass, an Air France-KLM regional general

manager. "We are deeply sorry that this was viewed as

discrimination, which was absolutely not the intention of the

crew."

The crew said using only Korean on the sign was simply an

oversight. An English notice was added after passengers

complained, Glass said.

It is not KLM policy to reserve lavatories for crew, he

added.

On Wednesday, South Korea's transportation ministry released

a statement warning KLM over its "discriminatory measures" and

calling on the company to ensure it didn't happen again.

At a previously scheduled meeting on Friday, Dutch

Ambassador Joanne Doornewaard expressed regrets over the

incident to Transportation Minister Kim Hyun-mee, a ministry

official told Reuters. 

Reuters

Related Topics:

coronavirus