Court cracks down on airborne buttock touchers
To the relief of flight attendants, courts are reacting firmly against passengers who deliberately brush or touch their thighs and buttocks as they move along the aisles.
Some passengers protrude their elbows into the aisle for the same devious purpose. Two recent cases involving incidents on Singapore Airlines in August illustrate the problem.
Last Thursday, a schoolteacher from the United Arab Emirates was fined SGD10,000 in a Singapore Court on two counts of touching the buttocks of two 27-year-old stewardesses.
Ahmad Abdulla Saleh Alyasi, 41,committed the offences in August, shortly after he brushed against a 23-year-old flight attendant’s thigh. That charge was considered during his sentencing as well.
The court heard that in the early hours of the morning, an air stewardess was attending to Ahmad’s daughter when Ahmad touched her buttock with his palm while walking past her. “She glared at him,” the Straits Times reported. “He apologised and walked off.”
Earlier last week, Rajput Sandeep Singh, 30, an Australia-based software developer, apologised to a woman in open court in Singapore for molesting her aboard a Singapore Airlines flight from New Delhi on 25 August 2012.
That incident also occurred in the early hours, at about 5.30am. Singh allegedly touched the woman’s left and right inner thighs and pubic area. He was acquitted after paying the woman SGD2000. It was not disclosed whether the woman was a flight attendant. Singh got off lightly, as Singapore law on such matters is harsh. If convicted of molesting, he could have been jailed for up to two years, heavily fined, thrashed with a rattan cane or given all of the above.
A Singapore Airlines spokesman told the Singapore publication The New Paper: “In the event that any suspected molest cases takes place on board our flights, we are always ready to assist our cabin crew members in filing a police report.”
Qantas, Emirates and Finnair had declined comment when asked their attitudes to similar activities, the paper added.
Written by : Peter Needham
