Two male passengers sexually harass Garuda flight attendant, are met by airport security at end of flight

Garuda Indonesia has won awards for having some of the best cabin crews in the industry, but their staff still faces the possibility of sexual harassment, just like any others. What is exemplary is how seriously Garuda took a recent incidence of sexual harassment against one of flight attendants, which will hopefully serve as a lesson to others who think they can make sexist jokes with impunity.

Garuda Indonesia confirmed that two male passengers sexually harassed one of their flight attendants during a flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta last Wednesday.

“We deeply regret the incident because our air hostess was carrying out her professional duty on the flight,” said Garuda Indonesia Vice President of Corporate Communications Benny S Butarbutar, as quoted by Kompas on Saturday.

“Please don’t take our [flight attendants’] kindness for granted.”

Benny did not reveal what exactly happened during the flight, but said it had to do with offensive things the passengers said to the flight attendant while she was serving drinks. One passenger, who claimed he witnessed the supposed sexual harassment, shed some light into what really happened in this Facebook post, which went viral recently.

 

 

This afternoon on flight GA 216, when the air hostess was offering drinks, the passenger in front of me asked for milk. And then the passenger next to him butted in by saying, “milk from the right or left?” What was said next wasn’t clear as they were both laughing. The air hostess didn’t take too kindly [to the joke] and the matter was drawn out. The passengers were interrogated by the flight crew throughout the flight. When the plane landed, airport security officers were already on standby outside the door. Who knows what happened next.

Guys, air hostesses, especially those who work for Garuda, are kind. But don’t try to raise trouble especially regarding sexual harassment, or you’ll end up in trouble.

Benny added that the passengers admitted their wrongdoings and the matter was resolved privately.


A version of this article is available in Bahasa Indonesia at our sister site Coconuts Indonesia.



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