Chinese pilot grounded after photo of woman in cockpit sparks outrage

A Chinese pilot has been grounded after a photo of a woman sitting in an airplane cockpit emerged on social media, sparking outrage over a breach of safety rules. The photo, posted by the woman on the Twitter-like Weibo social network, showed her taking the pilot's seat and making a V-sign while wearing civilian clothes. "[I am] super thankful to the pilot! I am really so excited," the caption read. The photo was spotted by a Chinese aviation blogger on Sunday. The blogger identified that the image was taken on an Air Guilin plane mid-flight, and criticized the airline for disregarding flight safety. The woman has since deleted the original photo on her Weibo account.<br/>The photo went viral by the time it had been taken down. The aviation blogger's post about the image currently has 22,000 likes. Air Guilin confirmed that the incident took place during a flight from the southern city of Guilin to Yangzhou, eastern China on January 4. On Monday the airline said it had suspended the unnamed pilot from flying duties "for life" for violating civil aviation rules, while other members of the flight crew had been banned indefinitely, pending further investigation.<br/>