Guys On Rugby Trip Bombard Female Passenger With Sexual Messages On Virgin Atlantic Flight

A woman has been bombarded with sexual messages by a group of guys on a rugby trip during a Virgin Atlantic flight.

Jessica Van Meir, from Atlanta, Georgia, US, was flying on Saturday when she was inundated with messages from fellow passengers via a seat-to-seat in-flight chat system.

PA

One passenger messaged her saying 'you tidy babe' and another with the username 'big d**k swinger' sent her two winking emojis, while one called 'dirty mike' said 'welcome to hell'.

Ms Van Meir - who is a legal analyst specialising in cases of sexual assault and harassment - subsequently took a picture of the passengers who were sending messages and reported them to Virgin Atlantic.

She replied to the messages by writing: "I work for a law firm that specialises in online sexual harassment. Enjoy being reported to Virgin."

Detailing her experience in a thread on Twitter, she said: "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 and dealt with it swiftly. Have any other women had this happen to them? Thanks to everyone who has expressed sympathy and concern.

Jessica Van Meir

"After the flight attendants spoke with the guys, I walked through the aisle and took a picture of them. Afterwards, a young guy came up to me and said he heard about the chat between me and the guys and wanted to apologise on their behalf.

"They were on a rugby trip and he was one of the leaders. He said the guys had been drinking and he'd talk to them, was sorry and hoped we could leave it at that.

"What matters to me is not going after these guys, but making sure they understand why it was harmful."

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic told LADbible that seat-to-seat messaging is not a feature on any new aircraft joining its fleet.

In a statement, the airline 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."

Topics: World News, travel

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey