It has not been a good year for Malaysia Airlines.
In the latest piece of negative publicity to hit the struggling company, an Australian woman has come forward claiming she was sexually assaulted on board a Malaysia Airlines flight earlier this month.
Laura Bushney told Australian news channel Seven that she was assaulted by the chief steward on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris on 4 August.
Fighting back tears, the 26-year-old told of how she was too scared to scream for help. A video clip taken on her phone shows her tearfully speaking to a man across the aisle as he shakes his head.
‘You did, you did, you did, don’t lie. It’s what you did,’ she can be heard saying.
‘I’m so scared, I just want to get off this plane.’
She told Australian reporter that she was paralysed by fear during the alleged attack.
‘I couldn’t stop it, I just froze, I was just scared,’ she said.
The male steward – who is married with three daughters – was detained by French authorities and is still behind bars.
Sexual assaults on planes are rare, but are notoriously hard to investigate.
In February, Carlos Vasquez was sentenced to three years probation and fined $3,000 (£1,808) after molesting a 15-year-old girl on a Houston flight. The girl pretended to be asleep.
Malaysia Airlines, which was in serious financial trouble even before the twin disasters of MH370 and MH17, is battling for survival as bookings continue to slide and the latest piece of bad news will do nothing to help.
‘Malaysia Airlines expects and accepts nothing short of the highest standards of conduct from its crew and takes any such allegations very seriously,’ said a spokesperson.
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| Laura Bushney fought back tears as she described how she was too scared to scream (Picture: Seven) |
In the latest piece of negative publicity to hit the struggling company, an Australian woman has come forward claiming she was sexually assaulted on board a Malaysia Airlines flight earlier this month.
Laura Bushney told Australian news channel Seven that she was assaulted by the chief steward on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris on 4 August.
Fighting back tears, the 26-year-old told of how she was too scared to scream for help. A video clip taken on her phone shows her tearfully speaking to a man across the aisle as he shakes his head.
 |
| Footage shows Laura accusing the steward of being a ‘liar’ (Picture: Seven) |
‘You did, you did, you did, don’t lie. It’s what you did,’ she can be heard saying.
‘I’m so scared, I just want to get off this plane.’
She told Australian reporter that she was paralysed by fear during the alleged attack.
‘I couldn’t stop it, I just froze, I was just scared,’ she said.
The male steward – who is married with three daughters – was detained by French authorities and is still behind bars.
Sexual assaults on planes are rare, but are notoriously hard to investigate.
In February, Carlos Vasquez was sentenced to three years probation and fined $3,000 (£1,808) after molesting a 15-year-old girl on a Houston flight. The girl pretended to be asleep.
Malaysia Airlines, which was in serious financial trouble even before the twin disasters of MH370 and MH17, is battling for survival as bookings continue to slide and the latest piece of bad news will do nothing to help.
‘Malaysia Airlines expects and accepts nothing short of the highest standards of conduct from its crew and takes any such allegations very seriously,’ said a spokesperson.
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