I despise the arrogance of Mr Slosar when he quotes to the press, "Recent events have called into question Cathay Pacific’s commitment to flight safety and security and put our reputation and brand under pressure". As Flight Operations is at the fore-front of flight safety, what the hell have Flt Ops done last week that has compromised Flight Safety? As far as I have observed or read the operation has continued to be processed with the usual professionalism that is still left amongst the crews.
One suspects a better sacrificial lamb would have been the head goat but as Merlin received his instructions in Beijing to fire a couple of board members "pour encourage les autres," he could hardly fire a chairman.
The whole couple of weeks has been handled appallingly at board level, seemingly without a common message.