8 weeks’ jail for 2 former Cathay employees

Ex-flight attendants breached Covid-19 quarantine rules while infected with Omicron

Two former Cathay Pacific Airways flight attendants were yesterday each sentenced to eight weeks in jail for breaching Covid-19 quarantine rules while infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant.

They were thought to be responsible last year for sparking one of the earliest clusters in Hong Kong’s fifth and most severe wave of infections.

Wong Yoon-loong and Nilsson Lau Kok-wang, both 45, were initially jailed for nine weeks. But the court gave each a discount of a week, citing “valid mitigation” in losses in employment and associated benefits.

Magistrate Edward Wong Ching-yu yesterday said the case was serious because the pair had already been exempted from self-isolation, but had abused their rights and privileges and carried out “totally unnecessary activities” infecting nine members of the public.

“For some time, the government had already exempted crew members of aircraft from compulsory quarantine, instead only requiring them to be put under medical surveillance,” he said. “Therefore, a custodial sentence is appropriate for this case.”

Eastern Court had remanded the pair in custody since last month, pending sentencing, noting their offences were serious and warranted immediate imprisonment.

Wong and Lau stood trial in August and October on a total of three counts of failing to observe the conditions specified by a health officer, after their guilty pleas were rejected by the court.

Yesterday, the defence counsel, James McGowan, requested the court grant a suspended sentence or fine the pair, saying they were “very sorry” for having infected so many people.

Lau had even consumed dangerous drugs “exactly because of the stress of this case”, he disclosed. But the magistrate said he was not convinced Lau’s medical condition was serious enough to warrant a discount, adding he found no facts to justify a suspension.

The two ex-employees of the city’s flag carrier late last year received a 21-day medical monitoring notice after they returned from the United States for their Christmas holidays.

The court earlier heard they were told to stay at home until they cleared Covid-19 tests on the third day after arrival in Hong Kong. The only exceptions were to carry out “necessary activities”, such as going to test centres.

But they were found to have left their homes to visit friends and later to have caught the Omicron variant. Wong claimed he had been misled by the airline’s internal guidelines, which purportedly did not ban such activities during the first two weeks of quarantine.

But in his verdict, Magistrate Wong said it was incredible and unreasonable for the two to argue they had an urgent need to visit friends and eat in restaurants before they knew the test results.