Woman bombarded with sexual messages from strangers while flying
A Cambridge University graduate has been sent sexually charged messages from strangers on a Virgin Atlantic flight.
Jessica Van Meir was targeted by other passengers using the plane’s chat system which allows other passengers to communicate on board.
The messages said “you tidy babe” and another message from an unknown passenger called “dirty mike” said “welcome to hell”.
Van Meir shared images of the messages on Twitter.
“I was on a Virgin Atlantic flight, and I unexpectedly received these sexually harassing messages on my screen,” she wrote.
“I was in 55C. The flight attendants were helpful and dealt with it swiftly. Have any other women had this happen to them?”
She added: “Virgin Atlantic, you should probably take measures to prevent this from happening by flagging specific language and putting in place a reporting function on the chat to report abusive users.”
Yesterday I was on a @VirginAtlantic flight, and I unexpectedly received these sexually harassing messages on my screen (I was in 55C).
The flight attendants were helpful & dealt with it swiftly.
Have any other women had this happen to them?#metoo #cyberharassment @SCFGallagher pic.twitter.com/7tbVkRhpQp— Jessica Van Meir (@jessicavanmeir) 6 October 2019
After this incident, Virgin has now said it will review the system to avoid passengers from sending unsolicited messages.
A spokesperson said: “We were extremely concerned to hear of the incident reported on-board one of our flights and are investigating as a matter of urgency.
“We want all of our customers to have the best possible experience when they fly with us and have zero tolerance for any disruptive or inappropriate behaviour.
“We’re grateful to our cabin crew who supported our customer following this incident and would like to apologise for the distress caused.
“We are now reviewing our entertainment systems to ensure this does not happen again.”