A Melbourne mother has publicly called out a passenger after she caught him sending a racist text about her and her son on a Qantas flight.
Sally Fifita posted a lengthy Facebook status detailing a terrible incident that she and her son had faced when they flew back to Australia from Auckland, New Zealand.
In her post, the Melbourne mother noted that she was originally in NZ for a wedding and her husband had left a week early. She was left to travel home alone with her young son, who was travelling with her for the first time.
She claimed things went south when she first boarded the plane and they were trying to find their seats.
“As soon as we found our seats and we were trying to settle in, this man turns around looks at my son and shook his head,” she wrote.
Witnessing this man’s disgruntled look, Sally asked the passenger what was wrong. “I just hope he [her son] doesn’t kick my seat the whole way,” he allegedly replied.
Sally then mentioned that her son’s legs could barely touch the floor, let alone the seat in front of him. She even provided a photo of her son in the seat within her FB post.
“Just as we were about to fly he turns around again saying can he stop kicking,” Sally claimed. “I was then so frustrated and told him he can’t even reach his seat and maybe he should’ve paid for business class or let alone went on his own plane if he didn’t want to have a child sitting behind him.”
She then went onto the moment where she caught the man writing a racist text about the her and toddler. In the text, Sally pointed out that he referred to them as Black in a derogatory way.
“After taking a photo absolutely stunned best believe I confronted him even if I was making a scene he then looks at me absolutely shocked I saw and starts deleting his message shaking his head,” Sally wrote.
“Not only was this old man writing racial messages – my son was crying as we went up in the air and the lovely lady next to me tried comforting my son by playing with him and I just broke down.”
Luckily, the Qantas flight attendants assisted Sally and her child by moving her to a new seat away from the man. According to Sally, the unnamed man “felt bad the whole plane ride” and he wanted to come and apologise to them, but the flight attendants told him that it wasn’t appropriate.
Sally ultimately decided to not take things further, and shared her gratitude towards the two passengers who switched seats with her and the flight attendants who helped her.
It’s absolutely disgusting that people still think they can get away with these things in 2023. And to spew that much hate at a child? It’s just diabolical.
I’m so glad that Sally and her family were able to get away from the man safely. Just wished the pilot could’ve pressed an eject seat button like they do in the movies.
