Woman bombarded with sexually inappropriate messages on flight

A woman has spoken out after she was bombarded by a series of inappropriate messages during a flight.

Jessica Van Meir, from Atlanta in the US, shared photos of the messages she received via Virgin Atlantic’s in-flight messaging system on Sunday, with one passenger called “Big D*** Swinger” sending her two winking emojis, another calling her a “tidy babe” and a third passenger called “Dirty Mike” saying, “Welcome to hell”.

Ms Van Meir shared the messages on Twitter.

She added the airline’s staff were helpful and dealt with the “sexually harassing messages” swiftly.

“After the flight attendants spoke with the guys, I walked through the aisle and took a picture of them,” she tweeted.

“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.”

The woman was told the group were on a rugby trip and the man apologising to her 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,” Ms Van Meir tweeted.

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

People called the messages “gross”.

“Sorry you experienced that,” one woman tweeted.

One man added he was glad she “spoke out” about sexual harassment because “many have not”.

Another man shared the images, tweeting men who sexually harass women need to “cut the crap”.

“Fellas, do better. Stop arguing with women when they say ‘men are trash’ when this is what we put them through daily,” he said.

Ms Van Meir has since followed up on her original tweet, thanking “everyone who has expressed sympathy and concern” on Twitter.

She also shared an email from Virgin Atlantic, revealing that she hopes the airline will “take measures to prevent other forms of sexual harassment from happening to others.”

Virgin Atlantic apologised for Ms Van Meir’s experience deeming the behaviour “unacceptable”.

“We were extremely concerned to hear of the incident reported on board one of our flights and are investigating as a matter of urgency,” the airline tweeted.

“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.”

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