A woman claims she was pulled from a lavatory onboard an Aer Lingus flight by two flight attendants and dragged down the aisle with her pants around her ankles and her buttocks and genitalia exposed to all the passengers around her. Details of the bizarre incident were revealed in the last few days after Mary Oshana filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois seeking compensation from Aer Lingus for the April 2018 incident.
Oshana was a passenger on Aer Lingus flight EI122 from Chicago to Dublin, Ireland on April 26, 2018 when the plane taxied from the gate and parked up on the taxiway to wait out a short ground delay. Around 30 minutes after waiting in line and not going anywhere, Oshana says she got up from her seat because she had to use the lavatory.
Within 20 seconds of entering the lavatory, Oshana claims an Aer Lingus flight attendant started banging on the door, instructing her to immediately return to her seat. But by this point, Oshana had already sat on the toilet with her pants around her ankles.
She claims she told the flight attendant she would return to her seat “in a minute” but accuses the crew of breaking into the lavatory just 20 seconds later and with no prior warning.
“In the process of being dragged from the lavatory to her seat with her pants below her knees, the buttocks and genitalia of the plaintiff, Mary Oshana, were exposed to other passengers aboard flight EIO122.”
The lawsuit claims two flight attendants grabbed her “under her arms, dragged her to her seat while her pants were below her knees, and threw her with great force into the armrest and seat.”
She says that along with suffering pain and bruising from being thrown into the armrest, she also faced the emotional distress of seeing and hearing male passengers behind her laughing and pointing at her.
As a result of hitting the armrest, Oshana now claims to have suffered “severe and permanent injuries to her nervous system.” She’s asking for undisclosed damages that would “fully and fairly compensate her for the damages and injuries she has sustained.”
Aer Lingus has been contacted for comment but has not yet responded. The airline recently boasted it had been named the world’s fifth-most family-friendly airline in research conducted by Lastminute.com.
