Despite a wave of high profile Facebook mistakes since the social networking website first launched, people are still commenting publically about things that really should stay private. Two pilots for British Airways have recently published criticisms of paying passengers and other work colleagues on the social networking website, unaware that what they say is both public and traceable to them.
This latest Facebook faux-pas came to light in a recent story from the Daily Mirror, where the newspaper printed comments from two BA pilots, Adam Corfield and Jonathan Harman.
The two pilots were completely oblivious to how their comments could be viewed by others, traced back to them and were accessible by Google – opening them up to the pitfalls of SEO.
Cheshire based Adam Corfield commented on how one business class passenger was close to pushing him to far. The newspaper quotes Corfield as saying:
“He came close to punching a business class “w****r” who came “marching into the galley shouting into my face he wants a coffee”.”
Corfield’s outburst received a message of support from Jonathan Harman, a 747 first officer with BA. Harman commented:
“Good work adam, you should still have hit him though!”
Corfield and Harman also had an exchange between them about the disputes between BA and its staff, and how they have no sympathy for the striking workers.
The Daily Mirror spoke to BA about the comments made on Facebook by some of its pilots. A BA spokesman commented:
“Things are bad enough without our pilots slating our passengers. With all the chaos caused by the strike action – costing £7million a day – this is really the last thing we needed.”
“We thank the Daily Mirror for bringing this to our attention. We are investigating the claims in line with our normal internal disciplinary process.”
