A Business Class passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight from China to Singapore has been sentenced to three weeks in prison after he pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals at a flight attendant while filming her reaction – something that he claimed he did for a joke.
23-year-old Brilliant Angjaya from Indonesia is likely to end up at Singapore’s notorious Changi Prison Complex, a vast high-rise jail on the outskirts of the city state’s Changi Airport, where inmates spend 23 hours a day in their cells, rarely see the sunlight and have to sleep on the floor.
Angjaya was flying back to the city-state on January 23 onboard a Singapore Airlines flight after finishing a college placement in China. During the flight, the court heard how Angjaya knocked back two glasses of Champagne with his first inflight meal before he fell asleep.
When Angjaya awoke from his nap, he went up to use the lavatory and at this point, he told the court that he suddenly came upon the idea to expose himself at one of the flight attendants while capturing their reaction on his mobile phone as a crude prank.
He returned to his seat, unbuckled his trousers and then hid his genitals under the airline blanket. When the flight attendant came to serve Angjaya his pre-arrival meal, he whipped off the blanket while filming the flight attendant.
The clearly shocked crew member immediately averted her eyes but then continued to serve Angjaya, quickly pulling out his tray table and setting down the meal tray before retreating back to the galley.
Once back to safety, the flight attendant told her supervisor about the incident, and noted that Angjaya had his mobile phone pointed at her.
The supervisor challenged Angjaya, and while he initially denied exposing himself, he eventually agreed to hand over his mobile phone, where footage of the incident was found by the supervisor.
On arrival at Changi International Airport, the police were waiting to meet the plane, and Angjaya was taken into custody.
On March 23, Angjaya pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exposure. Prosecutors pushed the court to send Angjaya to prison for up to six weeks, but while the judge described Angjaya’s actions as “inexplicable” and “inexcusable,” he limited the sentence to three weeks imprisonment.
One of the reasons for the shorter prison sentence was that Angjaya had shown genuine remorse and had written an apology letter to the victim.
The letter, which was read out to the court, said to the victim: “You do not deserve the distress and complications I caused you… I hope it gives you at least some comfort knowing that I will face justice for my action.”
Last November, a 73-year-old man was charged with sexually assaulting four women during an ultra-long-haul flight from the United States to Singapore aboard a Singapore Airlines plane.
The elderly suspect assaulted two of the women within the space of just five minutes, while he allegedly ‘outraged the decency’ of his third and fourth victims hours later as the plane was nearing Singapore.
Under Singapore’s corporal punishment laws, people who are convicted of sexual offenses can face caning as a punishment, although this does not apply to perpetrators aged 50 and over.
In 2022, a leading women’s rights and gender quality organization in Singapore called on the flagship airline to ditch the iconic sarong Kebaya uniform worn by female flight attendants since the 1970s because of its “distinctly fetishistic, Orientalist undertones.”
Until July 2022, flight attendants at Singapore Airlines who got pregnant were dismissed with just two months’ worth of wages. Expectant mothers are now, however, offered ground positions before returning to the skies after the birth of their child.
Hopefully they post his prison experience on the perps social media account so his followers can see the consequences of his actions.
Caning is barbaric