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Cathay Pacific spells own name wrong on side of plane

The airline missed out a crucial ‘F’

Helen Coffey
Thursday 20 September 2018 11:42 BST
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Cathay Paciic doesn't give an 'F'
Cathay Paciic doesn't give an 'F' (Cathay Pacific)

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“You only had one job” – that was the collective cry from the internet upon discovering that Cathay Pacific had spelt its own name wrong on the side of one of its aircraft.

The Hong Kong based airline was left red-faced after realising that the plane in question was missing a crucial “F”, meaning the huge letters actually read: “Cathay Paciic”.

The mistake was brought to the airline’s attention by travellers passing through Hong Kong International Airport, who were quick to spot the spelling fail.

The errant aircraft has now gone back to the shop for a touch-up. Cathay Pacific tweeted: “Oops this special livery won’t last long! She’s going back to the shop!”

Most on social media saw the funny side, although some thought it wasn’t a laughing matter.

Twitter user HK Phil said, “If they can get this obviously wrong makes you wonder about the more important engineering on the plane,” while Mike Cooper wrote: “I fly Cathay and to me this just shows a breakdown in quality – no humour (and I’m a funny guy). Not something I think should be so blatantly and proudly publicised on a brand I spend money to support. How much did this ‘mistake’ cost?”

However, many saw it as an opportunity to get stuck into the dad jokes.

Highlights (or lowlights, depending on your attitude to puns) included “For F’s sake”, “Someone needs to get the F out” and “My, someone ucked up!” – but the winner surely goes to “Errorplane”. Kudos.

It’s not the first time spelling woes have plagued a brand. Earlier this year ASOS owned up to printing 17,000 plastic bags with a mistake.

The company incorrectly printed a message on the bags used for online order shipments.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific flies last jumbo jet

It was supposed to read, “ASOS discover fashion online”, but the brand mistakenly wrote “onilne.”

Realising the blunder, ASOS owned up and tweeted a picture of the plastic bag on Twitter alongside the caption, “OK, so we *may* have printed 17,000 bags with a typo.

“We’re calling it a limited edition.”

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