A woman has accused a Saudi Airlines flight supervisor of molesting her and Mumbai airport officials of shoddily handling her complaint.
A 21-year-old woman has accused a Saudi Airlines flight supervisor of molesting her and Mumbai airport officials of shoddily handling her complaint.
On April 3, Simone D’souza boarded the 10.30am Jeddah-Damam-Mumbai flight SV 740. D’souza (not her real name) stayed with her parents in Jeddah. Her parents were supposed to return in a few days as her father’s work permit had expired.
“The flight stopped at Damam as it was a transit flight and suddenly the cabin temperature dropped,” D’souza said. “The flight supervisor, Mohammed, boarded the flight at Damam and offered blankets to the passengers. While putting a blanket on me, he fondled my breasts. I was completely taken aback.”
D’souza regained her composure and yelled at the supervisor. He immediately apologised, she said. “I did not know whom to approach because he was the senior-most guy who was in charge of the crew.”
Not to let the culprit get away, D’souza decided to pursue the matter with Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). The flight landed at Mumbai at 5pm. After clearing her immigration and collecting her baggage, D’souza reached the airport manager’s office at Terminal 2C.
“I told the manager that I wanted to lodge a complaint against the airline supervisor. Since the manager was a woman, I thought she would understand my problem better,” D’souza said. “But she asked me to write the complaint on a suggestion form. She told me curtly that the matter would be looked into within three working days.”
A MIAL spokesperson, however, said they had tried to help her. “After clearing her immigration and taking her bag, she told our staff that she wanted to lodge a complaint against the flight supervisor. Our staff accompanied her to the airline’s office where she was asked to wait for 30 minutes,” he said.
“But she was not ready to wait. We told her that she could lodge a police complaint and our staff would accompany her. She refused and insisted on filing a complaint with us. We then gave her the suggestion form and later passed it on to the airline.”
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