Masturbation Causes Air France Flight Cancellation

Posted By Ben Nickel-D'Andrea on Nov 15, 2017 | 13 comments

Well, file this under weird news.

But also under I really can’t believe that other people are ignoring the report about this incident being a sexual harassment one and NOT a ‘look at the terrible things that happen in third world countries’ and yet another occurrence of abuse of power, even comparing it to other completely unrelated events, as if none of this ever happened in the US. Even some really large blog went into a tirade that reeks of first world entitlement by assuming that since this happened in what they perceive to be a third world country, it couldn’t have been anything other than corruption and abuse of power. 

Air France from Clarin.com

So far, this is what has been quoted from Aviation24, which is mostly a regurgitation of the official communique put out by the Air France’s union:

The passenger was travelling on board Air France flight AF228 to Buenos Aires on 29 October 2017. Apparently, she asked for an upgrade to business class but was denied the upgrade as the business class was fully booked. In-flight the same passenger asked to change her seat again due to the “inappropriate behaviour†of her neighbour. The crew didn’t notice anything particular but complied with the passenger’s request and assigned her a new seat.

 

After landing and following a complaint from the same passenger, part of the crew was forced to go to the airport police station. After staying there for six hours, the crew was released, but at the hotel, an injunction was handed over to the crew to report to the Buenos Aires court the next morning at 8:30. The crew became aware that the passenger was the daughter of a former Deputy Minister of Justice and now a Buenos Aires magistrate.

 

After several hours, he could finally speak to a lawyer to file a complaint about his treatment. The other crew members were heard for many hours, but the purser was interrogated only at 20:00. Next to the judge, the father of the passenger was also present to interrogate the crew members, in Spanish.

According to the Syndicat National du Personnel Navigant Commercial, who is defending the crew, as it should, the crew was submitted to ‘a calvary’ by local authorities, and put a lot of stress on the passenger’s family connection (she is the daughter of Ricardo Klass, former Deputy Minister of Justice until 1997). What they, and everyone else, fail to mention is that the reason the crew-members were interrogated and detained for hours is that they failed to do anything after she notified them the passenger sitting next to her was openly masturbating.

Cedric Carayon, who seems to be the jerk accused passenger, was detained after the female passenger in question spoke to the Airport Police in Ezeiza after deplaning Air France flight AF228 from Paris to Buenos Aires on October 29th, and was formally accused of an equivalent to indecent exposure. After the first time she mentioned this to the crew – which went ignored – she says ‘the man unzipped his pants and started doing masturbation motions under the pillow he used as cover’, as reported by local newspapers.

Now, I don’t mean to say the crew’s complaints about being mistreated aren’t important but they’re not in any way mutually exclusive. If they were mistreated that needs to be investigated. It is an altogether different thing if they felt mistreated because they were detained and interrogated. It’s important to note that, they were interrogated to obtain more information about this case, since the purser might also be charged with accessory to the crime (as he failed to put a stop to the sexual harassment) and threats (as he told the female passenger she would be detained upon landing if she didn’t go back to her seat).

Apparently, when interrogated, all crew-members mentioned being told by the purser that she had reported sexual harassment, yet he failed to inform the pilot of the facts, and instead of containing a victim of a potential sexual crime, he further victimized her and treated her as a disruptive passenger.

Other points:

• The crew was detained for a long period of time since they, being French speakers, and Argentina requiring all legal matters be carried out in Spanish, they had to resort to interpreters to bridge that gap.
• The victim’s father was present during the depositions since he is representing his daughter in this case.
• She was in fact moved to the jump seat so she wouldn’t have to share the row with the perv, but was later asked to go back next to him for landing – which she refused to do for the most obvious of reasons.

And lastly, people. This lady says she was sexually harassed while on a metal tube with nowhere to go… CAN WE FOR GOD’S SAKE STOP TALKING ABOUT WHETHER SHE ASKED TO SWITCH TO A GODDAMN BUSINESS CLASS SEAT OR WHETHER SHE’S RELATED TO A LOW LEVEL MINISTER FROM AN ADMINISTRATION THAT ENDED TWENTY YEARS AGO AND FOCUS ON WHAT SHE’S CLAIMING?!?!

Hard to believe in today’s day and age and after the past few weeks of hearing nothing but outrage about the likes of Weinstein, Moore and Louis CK being total perverts and criminals we still disregard this as ‘this woman was unhappy with her treatment onboard’.

FFS.