A FEMALE plane passenger has revealed how she intervened when she overheard an adult man asking a teenage girl for a “dirty” photo on a flight. Canadian reporter Joanna Chiu heard the man, aged in his 30s, talking suggestively to the teen on a trip from Toronto to Vancouver. While trying to get to sleep, […]
A FEMALE plane passenger has revealed how she intervened when she overheard an adult man asking a teenage girl for a “dirty” photo on a flight.
Canadian reporter Joanna Chiu heard the man, aged in his 30s, talking suggestively to the teen on a trip from Toronto to Vancouver.
While trying to get to sleep, Chiu overheard the male passenger telling the young girl he wanted to “take her out to eat.”
The journalist was forced to “rage whisper” her disgust at the man when he asked to the teenager for a “dirty” photograph.
Writing about the disturbing encounter on Twitter, she said: “A man appearing in his late thirties was obviously delighted to be seated next to a teenager separated from the rest of her family.
“She was friendly and he seemed to take that as a welcome cue to get very familiar and started teasing her and kept saying that he wanted to take her out to eat, which she ignored.
“At this point I had to stay awake in case anything went further than that.”
She continued: “It did, and as soon as he asked for a ‘dirty’ photo while leaning close to her I turned around and rage-whispered exactly what I thought of that and he didn’t say anything back and went off to use washroom.”
Chiu said another woman seated behind the girl also said she had overheard the terrifying exchange and reassured the teen she was “just behind her if she needed any help.”
But the Canadian reporter decided to put an end to the harassment.
She says she told the cabin crew what had happened prompting them to take witness statements.
They quickly asked the man to change seats.
Chiu said: “He resisted swearing at me and asked to talk to the boss and the head flight attendant said: ‘I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane’.”
The man eventually moved and staff on board wrote up a report.
She added that the male passenger “looked like he was sweating bullets” when airport staff pulled him aside when they landed in Vancouver.
Chiu said she noticed how other men on board had failed to intervene before recounting her own experiences of harassment on board as a young woman.
She believes her Twitter thread on March 25, which has since gone viral, has helped raise awareness for people who “didn’t know airplane harassment was so common.”
Chiu also posted a thank you note given to her by airline staff which read: “Thank you so much for being our eyes and ears during this flight!
“As a crew, we appreciate your concern for the young lady, and as a result helped us put a stop to a very uncomfortable situation.”
The journalist also said she had overheard the man’s name and the company he works for, adding: “I’ll be sending a private note to them.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours
