Ibom Air has distanced itself from the release of a viral video showing a passenger in a state of indecent exposure during a recent in-flight altercation.
The airline’s Group Manager for Marketing and Communications, Aniekan Essienette, said in an interview with TVC News on Monday that while the incident occurred onboard one of its aircraft, the footage did not originate from any Ibom Air staff member.
She said, “As much as the video was taken on board, we had several other people who were not Ibom Air employees around the vicinity. So, anyone could have taken that video.
“I can tell you categorically that the video was not released by us. It is rather unfortunate that it has gone viral. We do not condone such indecent exposure, so we would not have been the ones to release it.”
Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, had earlier ordered sanctions against any Ibom Air employee found to have leaked the footage.
While acknowledging that filming the incident for court evidence was acceptable, Keyamo described the public release of a video containing indecent exposure as “totally unacceptable”.
Explaining the events that led to the altercation, Essienette said the passenger had initially resisted instructions to leave the aircraft.
“She had tried to come out earlier, but she was restrained because of some activities that had happened behind the scenes, and eventually, the pilot in command had to call security.
“For us to ensure that security takes her directly off the plane, our crew had to restrain her for a bit, and we saw what resulted after that happened,” she explained.
On the rising cases of disruptive behaviour on flights, Essienette stressed that no airline would deliberately set out to humiliate a passenger.
She urged authorities to prioritise measures aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future.
