I Stopped a Man From Watching Porn in Flight — Sadly, This Isn’t a Unique Occurrence

Right after takeoff, the call bell rang.

When my coworker responded, a concerned-looking middle-aged woman leaned over to speak to him in a hushed tone. “My sixteen-year-old daughter is seated two rows ahead of us,” she said, without breaking her gaze toward the girl’s seat. “She just sent me a message over the WiFi to tell me that the man next to her is watching pornography on his phone.” He immediately walked over to her daughter’s row to see her seatmate, a man in his thirties, quickly place his phone face down in his lap. The flight attendant walked back a few rows, checking to see if he would resume. After a long few minutes gaining confidence that he was not being watched, the man picked the phone back up, in full view of the young girl, and began again to watch hardcore porn as she turned pale and sick. It wasn’t so much the content of the film but the intent of the man in the act of watching it plainly in view of a captive, young female audience. We confronted him and threatened him with arrest if it continued, and he complied. The girl was moved to sit near her mother, where she sat nervously and cried.

Sadly, as is being brought to light now, sexual harassment and assault is a growing problem plaguing the skies, with flight crews less than well-equipped to handle the situations. With victims feeling reticent to report on-board assaults (or, for that matter, those on the ground), the outcomes of these incidents can be disappointing. We, as crew, still do not receive any kind of specific directives on how to handle suspected sexual assault in the air, but will separate the the victim from the aggressor and can arrange to have authorities meet the flight to address the situation.

Despite attention being brought to the matter, airlines seem not to have made finding better solutions a priority. However, even some of the few attempts being made are proving misguided. Air India recently announced, on its domestic routes, a female-only zone in response to several onboard sexual assaults to take place onboard. Rather than find better ways to prosecute those who commit sex crimes inflight, the airline instead has done something rather strange — acknowledged the problem, yet instead of getting to its root, has offered a very small safe space to provide a handful of lucky but skittish women a refuge from unwanted hands. Additionally, the incidents which reportedly brought this development about were both international flights, yet these ladies’ rows will only be featured domestically.

This move by Air India will hopefully not be 100 percent of their solution to this larger issue. It’s hard to say what specifically is needed to help greatly reduce the numbers of inflight sexual assaults, but certainly it should start with comprehensive crew training and stronger legislation. In the case of our adult cinephile, we immediately moved the young lady and issued him a warning that any further incidents would result in arrest upon landing, which was all we really could do, as he did comply with our orders to stop. But the damage clearly had been done to the shaken girl, and as the man fell asleep in the row alone, we all couldn’t help but feel helpless and angry. And, as long as airlines drag their feet in developing better procedures to handle creeps like these, we all should feel the same way.

[Photo: Getty Images]