Investigation launched into alleged sexual harassment on Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines has agreed to investigate claims of sexual harassment on one of its flights, and complaints about the way it was dealt with by crew.
It comes after a ‘disturbing’ report was posted on Twitter by Randi Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media, who previously worked at Facebook, owned by her brother Mark.
Zuckerberg claims Alaska Airlines cabin crew ‘brushed off’ the behaviour of a passenger who repeatedly made ‘lewd sexual remarks’ at her and about other passengers.
She also claims the flight attendants ‘kept giving him drinks’ and told her he was a regular passenger who they’d had to speak to before.
They reportedly told her not to take it personally since ‘he doesn’t have a filter’.
Zuckerberg said the passenger repeatedly asked if she fantasised about female colleague she was traveling with, talked about touching himself, and made comments about other passengers’ bodies.
She said crew came down the aisle a few times and ‘sweetly’ asked the passenger ‘Are you behaving today?’ with ‘a smile and giggle’.
She said when she complained crew offered to move her from her first-class seat to a middle seat ‘at the very back of the plane’.
Zuckerberg documented her complaints in a letter addressed to airline executives that she posted on Twitter.
Within two hours of her Twitter post appearing, Zuckerberg tweeted again saying she had been assured by two executives from Alaska Airlines that an investigation had been launched and the airline had temporarily suspended the travel privileges of the passenger in question.
In a blog posted yesterday, the airline’s vice president of people, Andrea Schneider, said it would carry out a ‘thorough’ investigation.
"This report is very disturbing," she said.
"We take it extremely seriously and have launched a thorough investigation. The safety and well-being of our guests and employees is our number one priority. We want our guests to feel safe. As a company, we have zero tolerance for any type of misconduct that creates an unsafe environment for our guests and our employees
"In the weeks ahead, we will be working with guests, employees, union partners, and other leaders to review and strengthen our approach to preventing, identifying, and addressing these important issues."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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