The screenshot of the chat, conducted on their phones Sunday, somehow was leaked on social media, provoking widespread criticism of the airline, Nok Air. In response, Nok Air chief executive Patee Sarasin said in a tweet that "this kind of behavior is intolerable." "I will personally call Yingluck and apologise, Nok Air has no politics, I won't stand this," he said. Yingluck Shinawatra came to power in a landslide election victory in 2011, but her government was ousted in a coup in 2014 after protracted political turmoil. An airline in Thailand has apologised after friends of a pilot joked in a group chat about crashing the plane he was going to fly with a former prime minister on board.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 14, 2016 20:57 UTC