Scottish Police are appealing for witnesses on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Glasgow after a male passenger allegedly exposed his genitals to a female victim in a deliberate and sexual manner.
The incident reportedly occurred on Emirates flight EK27 from Dubai on August 4. A spokesperson for Emirates confirmed that “local authorities were asked to meet flight EK27 on arrival in Glasgow on 4th August to assist with a disruptive passenger on board the aircraft.”
“As the matter is now under police investigation, Emirates cannot comment further on the incident,” a statement from the airline continued. As the flight landed in Glasgow, the suspect will be dealt with under Scottish law rather than Dubai’s penal code.
Under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, sexual exposure is a crime that can be perpetrated by anyone when they expose their genitals in a sexual manner to a victim. The offender must be seeking sexual gratification or aiming to humiliate or distress the victim for the crime to be proven.
The normal maximum sentence for sexual exposure is 12 months imprisonment.
People are often surprised that sexual assault can occur on a plane but inflight sexual offences do occur and the incident rate is on the rise. In the United States, the FBI recently warned it was expecting a spike in reported sexual assaults aboard commercial flights after a drop in passenger numbers during the pandemic.
Having gathered hundreds of reports of inflight sexual assaults, the FBI has found that the majority of incidents take place on longer flights and normally when the cabin lights have been turned off. Victims are normally sitting in a window or middle seats and are sleeping and covered in a blanket when the assault occurs.
Survivors often wake up to find the perpetrator’s hands under the blanket and inside their clothing. Some survivors don’t immediately report what is happening because they are embarrassed, scared of making a scene or worry the assault was an ‘accident’.
The FBI has suggested five precautions for passengers to take:
- Trust your gut. Offenders will often test their victims, sometimes pretending to brush against them to see how they react or if they wake up. If such behaviour occurs, establish boundaries and consider asking to be moved to another seat.
- Be aware that mixing alcohol with sleeping pills or other medication might increase the risk.
- If your seatmate is a stranger, no matter how polite he or she may seem, keep the armrest between you down.
- If you are arranging for a child to fly unaccompanied, try to reserve an aisle seat so flight attendants can keep a closer watch on them. Minors are known targets.
- If an incident happens, report it immediately to the flight crew and ask that they record the attacker’s identity and report the incident. They can alert law enforcement, if necessary.
