Qatar Airways is reportedly investigating a man’s claims he was assaulted by four other passengers during a flight from Jeddah to Doha last month.
It comes after the victim’s wife detailed the incident in a public Facebook post that has since been shared widely on social media.
In her post, the woman described the attack as “terrifying” and “unheard of”. She said her husband and their two children, all US citizens, had boarded the plane on June 30.
Shortly before take-off, a woman in the seat in front turned round and yelled at the family that she “just wanted some peace and quiet”, the victim’s wife wrote on Facebook.
At that point, she wrote, their children were very calm; nonetheless, the angry passenger called the steward over and began shouting at him, too, before turning back to the family and saying: “Well I am Qatari and this is Qatar Airways! So maybe you shouldn’t be here!”
Later in the flight, the woman wrote, four men in the rows behind started hitting her husband’s seat every time he tried to recline it to make more room for him and their three-year-old child, who she said was sat on his lap.
Then, 40 minutes before landing, the four men got up, “snatched my husband up and started beating him up…They punched him, threw his glasses, my daughter and son were shaking, the other passengers stepped in to make these mad men stop.”
Thankfully her husband was not hurt, she said, but added that the family would “not be travelling via Qatar Airways ever again unless some action is taken and we are compensated for what we had to go through”.
Doha News reported that the woman had contacted the newspaper this week to say the airline has been in touch to confirm it is investigating the incident.
However, a spokesperson for Qatar Airways reportedly said it could not comment on what action the airline had taken “out of respect for the privacy of the other travellers”.
The spokesperson reportedly added: “We are in contact with the family directly to keep them informed.”
Follow us on
