Randi Zuckerberg, a media executive and the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has made a statement saying she felt “disgusted and degraded” after an incident of sexual harassment on an Alaska Airlines flight.
In an open letter to management at the airline, Zuckerberg said that she was on a flight from Los Angeles to Mexico when the male passenger next to her made “explicit, lewd, and highly offensive sexual comments,” which were ignored by staff.
She said that, immediately upon boarding, the man began talking to her while touching himself, commenting on women’s bodies as they entered the plane, and asking her if she fantasised about the female colleague with whom she was travelling.
She then said that when she raised the matter with flight attendants, they merely said that the man was a frequent traveller on that particular route, and that she shouldn’t take it personally as “this guy just doesn’t have a filter.”
After staff greeted the man with a “smile and giggle” to ask if he was behaving, Randi Zukerberg said that she was offered a different seat at the very back of the plane, which she almost accepted before realising that she should not be forced to move.
“I am the one being harassed! By a traveler who has a KNOWN history by these very flight attendants of being inappropriate and offensive in the past. All of this happened before the plane took off … why is it the woman that had to switch seats in this situation? Shouldn’t he have been thrown off the plane?”
She remained in her assigned seat throughout the flight and said that the man in question started knocking back alcoholic drinks and complaining about how “these millennial women just aren’t willing to give some booty to get a job anymore.”
In her letter to management, Zuckerberg criticised Alaska Airlines for knowingly and willingly allowing the passenger to continue with his harassment, and with their apparent lack of concern for the safety and security of other passengers.
Feeling disgusted & degraded after an @AlaskaAir flight where the passenger next to me made repeated lewd sexual remarks. The flight attendants told me he was a frequent flier, brushed off his behavior & kept giving him drinks. I guess his $ means more than our safety? My letter: pic.twitter.com/xOkDpb0dYU
— Randi Zuckerberg 🤗 (@randizuckerberg) November 30, 2017
In response to Randi Zuckerberg’s complaints, Alaska Airlines says it has suspended the man from travel pending an investigation, and in a blog post, airline executive Andrea Schneider wrote:
“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.”
There have been calls for airlines to pay greater attention to incidents of sexual harassment on flights, and it is hoped that this high-profile incident may be a catalyst for change.
