Flight attendant quits over Facebook coffee threat

BANGKOK—A Cathay Pacific flight attendant is out of a job after writing on her Facebook page that she wanted to throw coffee in the face of a passenger who is the youngest daughter of Thailand’s ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The flight attendant caused a stir in the Thai online communities last week for posting hostile comments about Paetongtarn Shinawatra. She also posted a picture of Paetongtarn’s seating number on a Bangkok-to-Hong Kong flight she worked on Nov. 25.

The flight attendant said in her post that she called her personal adviser to ask “if it was all right to throw something on (Paetongtarn) on this flight.”

“I discussed with another Thai colleague who didn’t like them about going over to ridicule her dad before she steps out of the plane,” she wrote. “Paetongtarn, I didn’t throw coffee in her face today but she had no clue that I will keep on fighting until your clan can no longer live like fleas on the Thai soil.”

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific posted Monday on its Thailand Facebook page that the flight attendant is “no longer an employee.” It did not release the name of the worker, whose Facebook handle is Honey Lochanachai.

The flight attendant said Monday on Facebook that she resigned in order to take responsibility.

Thaksin, a divisive figure in Thai politics, was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives in self-imposed exile following a 2008 corruption conviction.

His sister Yingluck has been prime minister since last year, and her opponents say she is Thaksin’s proxy. She recently survived a no-confidence vote in parliament and protests organized by Thaksin’s opponents.