Joanna Chiu was recently travelling by a Canadian airline when she encountered the incident.
In her thread, she explained how during a late-evening flight a man appearing in his late thirties targeted a teenager separated from the rest of her family and harassed her.
She tweeted, Thread about aeroplane creeps: I’m on a plane from a late-evening stopover and was very tired and had a row to myself to sleep but couldn’t avoid noticing what was going on in the row behind me.
A man appearing in his late thirties was obviously delighted to be seated next to a teenager separated from the rest of her family. He started off by asking about her career plans and laughed when she said she wanted to be CEO and kept giving her ridiculous advice.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
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 the washroom.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
They checked other witness accounts and the head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move. He resisted then started 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.”
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
He moved. The attendants checked in with the young woman and wrote up a report. They handled the situation well as far as I could tell, and it’s good to know other adult women passengers on the plane were paying attention and taking action while trying not to embarrass the teen.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
The first time I traveled without my parents the man next to me spoke with me most of the flight, which made me feel adult and important, and he said things like I must be flirting because I was touching the zipper on my jacket. To his credit he stopped and later looked ashamed.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
All adults need to be on guard and know there are things we can do to intervene even when a crime hadn’t technically been committed yet. Men need to figure out how to “spot creeps” in their vicinity as well and men can help too to prevent harassment or assault.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
Just walked off the plane and security was ready to pull him aside to talk to him and he looked like he was sweating bullets.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
Oh, and I also caught his name and the company he works for. I’ll be sending a private note to them.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
Wow this took off overnight. Can we share some resources on how to intervene safely in public spaces?
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
