Item was allegedly delivered to CY Leung’s younger daughter from non-restricted to restricted area in airport under ‘special arrangement’
OWEN FUNG, PHILA SIU AND ELIZABETH CHEUNG
UPDATED : Thursday, 07 April, 2016, 5:02pm
A file picture of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying with his wife and younger daughter Leung Chung-yan (right). Photo: David Wong
The city’s transport and housing chief said the Airport Authority is looking into allegations that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying exerted pressure on airport staff to bypass security rules to deliver a piece of left luggage to his daughter, who was at the boarding gate the time.
At a special Finance Committee meeting on transport on Thursday, pan-democratic lawmakers urged Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung to clarify the controversy reported in the media.
Cheung, however, said he could not comment on the matter yet, adding that the Airport Authority was looking into the alleged incident. He stressed that the government placed great importance on security at the airport.
Local Chinese newspaper Apple Daily reported that Leung allegedly requested over the phone that airline staff help his younger daughter, Leung Chung-yan, who had left a piece of luggage outside the restricted area when she was at the boarding gate for Cathay Pacific flight CX872 to San Francisco on March 28.
The report suggested that a senior staff member from the Airport Authority later arrived at the scene and had a staff member deliver the luggage to her directly from the airport’s non-restricted area to the restricted area under a “special arrangement”.
On Thursday afternoon, Apple Daily published an “internal document” allegedly detailing the incident.
“Ms Leung asked us many times to claim her bag on her behalf from [Avseco] to boarding gate ... she did not want to waste time ... also she told us that she must be getting on the flight,” the document said. Avseco is an aviation security firm.
An aviation source with knowledge of the incident told the South China Morning Post that the chief executive’s daughter had asked Leung for help.
“When the [Cathay Pacific] staff answered the phone, Leung Chun-ying really asked the staff member to call him ‘Chief Executive Leung’. That happened to some other staff who later answered the phone as well,” the source claimed, adding that the matter was then passed on to the Airport Authority to handle.
The source could not confirm if authority staff had indeed sent the luggage over to the chief executive’s daughter, or how it was delivered.
Airline pilot Jeremy Tam Man-ho told Commercial Radio on Thursday morning that left luggage must be collected by the passenger in person for security reasons.
While the Vienna Convention set in 1961 gives government leaders and diplomats special rights to have luggage exempted from security measures and brought to the plane, they must also collect the left luggage themselves, said Tam.
“Was Chung-yan getting on board as a VIP? The chief executive and his wife could, but if the daughter was travelling alone, did the Airport Authority have information indicating Chung-yan was also exempted under the convention?” asked Tam, urging the authority to give a clear explanation about the incident.
The Post has sent inquiries to Cathay Pacific, the Airport Authority and the Chief Executive’s Office, but no replies have been received yet.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1934194/hong-kong-authorities-investigate-whether-chief-executive
