A Delhi-Kochi flight this week turned into a nightmarish experience for a 33-year-old woman who faced repeated sexual harassment from a male co-passenger, she told TNM. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, was seated on the Vistara flight when the man seated behind her allegedly touched her inappropriately.
“About a half an hour into the flight, I felt the hand of the man who was sitting in the row behind me,” she said. Initially however, she dismissed the act as an accident. “As usual, because patriarchy is so deeply embedded in each of us, my first instinct was to say, OK, maybe I'm overthinking this, maybe he didn't do it,” she said. However, the woman shifted as much as possible in her seat to keep out of reach of the man.
The flight continued without disturbance until they were about to land, at which point she sat up straight in her seat. It was then that she felt the man’s hand again. “And this time I knew for a fact that I wasn't overthinking it, and he was definitely doing it deliberately,” she said.
While her first instinct was to confront him, she decided to make a video of the act as proof of the harassment. Once she did, she alerted a flight attendant and raised a ruckus, she said. As soon as they landed, the flight attendant immediately rushed to help her, and notified the cockpit to call ground staff.
When the flight landed, though she had the support of the flight attendant, her nightmare did not end there. The woman alleged that she faced difficulties with the Vistara ground staff, who appeared to be unaware of the protocol and lacked the sensitivity needed to handle the disturbing situation. Though there were initially both male and female ground staff members present with her, the woman staffer soon left, she said. What’s more, she was left alone with not only the male ground staffer but also the man who had harassed her, she said.
During this time, the harasser continuously spoke to her. She said that he told her about his family and work in an attempt to persuade her to drop the case. “This man — my harasser — is standing less than an arm’s length from me and is constantly just in my ear,” she recounted. “I did not want to see his face, let alone have him talk to me or be anywhere in my vicinity."
She finally met with the police, who handled the situation with sensitivity. Ultimately, however, she did not go forward with a First Information Report, not wanting to extend the ordeal any further during her time in Kochi. Nedumbassery police confirmed there was a complaint but an FIR was not registered. The woman was, however, told that the man’s family and employer were informed of the incident, she said.
Vistara Airlines spoke to the passenger on Wednesday and assured her that appropriate action was being taken.
“We are deeply concerned about the security of all our passengers and have strict SOPs in place against sexual harassment. All our teams across our domestic as well as international network are well equipped and trained to address such situations. In this case too, our teams followed the SOPs. Our team extended full support to the aggrieved customer and handed the case over to the local police. We continue to review the process based on feedback, as necessary. We are also in touch with the passenger to extend any further assistance, as needed,” a Vistara spokesperson told TNM.