Air Guilin in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region grounded a plane captain for life after he was found to have allowed a female passenger into the cockpit during a flight around 10 months ago, the airline said Monday.
A picture went viral on China's social media on Sunday, which showed a lady, not in uniform, sitting inside the cockpit of a passenger plane, with her fingers making a V-sign. It was posted with the caption "Many thanks to the captain" in Chinese.
According to Air Guilin, the incident occurred early this year on the flight coded GT1011 from the city of Guilin to Yangzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province.
Air Guilin said the captain had violated operating procedures and regulations, and the company would improve safety measures to prevent similar incidents.
The captain has been suspended for life, and other staff will be grounded indefinitely for further investigation by the company.
