Cabin Crew Accused of Robbing Flyers, Probe Underway

Cebu has promised a “thorough investigation” into allegations that cabin crew members schemed to steal a large amount of cash from passengers on a charter flight on Tuesday.

Cebu Pacific Air released a statement today via Twitter acknowledging accusations that one of its flight crews conspired to steal large sums of cash from passengers aboard a charter flight from Kalibo International Airport (KLO) to Changsha Huanghua International Airport (CSX). The advisory from the largest carrier in the Philippines comes as reports of the brazen mid-air theft have caught fire on Chinese social media.

In the brief statement, Cebu confirmed it was aware of the accusations and would be conducting its own investigation, as Chinese authorities look into the allegations. The full statement is below.

#CEBAdvisory on one of our charter flights to China:

CEB has been made aware of an alleged incident of theft in one of our charter flights to China. CEB is conducting a thorough investigation in parallel with an independent, third-party investigating body on this alleged incident.

As part of standard procedure, cabin crew members of the said flight will be placed on paid leave and a non-flying status, pending the completion of the investigation.

CEB will take the appropriate action, depending on the result of the investigation.

The incident quickly spread from reports on social media and is now being reported on mainstream news sources in China. Photographs, purported to be of crew members attempting to physically impede Chinese authorities who were called to investigate missing money, added a salacious layer to the story and helped to capture the public’s attention. Chinese media puts the total value of the cash that went missing at about 7700 yuan or just over 1200 dollars.

The details of the alleged caper make the scheme sound more like a loosely organized criminal conspiracy than a crime of opportunity. Passengers on the flight report that flight attendants would not allow passengers to keep any personal items with them at their seats instead insisting that all carry-on items be placed in overhead bins. Flyers say they first became suspicious when the cabin crew began opening and closing storage bins inflight and loitered in the aisles during the flight.

When suspicious flyers noticed missing money and alerted police, the planned heist allegedly began to unravel. Passengers say crew members attempted to hide the ill-gotten cash and one flight attendant attempted to flush the evidence down the lavatory toilet. Police were reportedly able to recover most of the missing money.

[Photos: Weibo]