“They Would Touch Your Bum”: Former Crewmember Reveals Extent of in-Flight Alcohol-Fueled Harassment
Jackie Reddy August 16, 2017
Moscow, Russia - May 14, 2013: Flight attendants serve passengers of UT-578 airlines UTair.
One former member of staff has revealed the extent of booze-related sexual harassment in the cabin.
As Britain reports a peak in the number of booze-related passenger arrests, a former cabin crew member reveals that incidents of alcohol-fueled sexual harassment are all too common in the cabin.
Former crew manager Ally Murphy was employed by Virgin for 14 years before leaving the carrier. She spoke to the BBC‘s Panorama program, which recently investigated the issue of alcohol-fueled in-flight behavior. Relating her experiences to the outlet, she was quoted by the Evening Standard as saying that, “People just see us as barmaids in the sky.”
She explained that the behavior that she had been subjected to played a significant part in her decision to leave the carrier. “I was pulled into an upper-class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky I guess,” Murphy said, speaking of one incident.
“They would touch your breasts, or they’d touch your bum or your legs, or I mean I’ve had hands going up my skirt before. It’s rage-inducing, and you shouldn’t have to deal with that,” Murphy added.
Two other unnamed crew members also spoke to the program of their experiences in dealing with intoxicated passengers. One explained how they had witnessed a colleague being violently assaulted by a drunken passenger while the second related how she had had to fend off the unwanted advances of another intoxicated traveler.
“It can go from anything from banter to sexual assault really,” the second member of crew was quoted as saying.
These revelations come just as it was disclosed that there were 387 alcohol-related arrests in the year leading up to February 2017. This is a 50 percent increase for the same period for the year before, when there were 255 arrests, according to the data gathered by the BBC.
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Is alcohol really an explanation for that? I had my fair share of booze and hangovers, yet never came close to do anything like this. Those people must have a despicable character to begin with.
This seems to be a predominantly British thing from what I can see. I'm not saying it doesn't happen else where but we seem to have the worst of it. To me it seems that when you are offering flights for £5 to the low end holiday resorts your going to attract all the A*** h***s that you might not ususally get. I would be interested to learn if this is an issue in other countries?. There is no doubt the Government needs to bring this issue iunder control, and as far as I can see, the Airports seeling booze irresponsibly is a big issue.