Southwest Airlines Passenger Watched Porn, Masturbated On Plane, Woman Claims

A woman tweeted to Southwest Airlines alleging a male passenger sitting next to her, aboard a flight from Las Vegas to Philadelphia on May 29, was watching porn and masturbating.

After witnessing her co-passenger engage in indecent behavior, Elly Shariat, who runs a PR firm, reached out to the airlines on Twitter, writing: “Uhh @SouthwestAir we have an issue. I’ve spent this entire flight sitting next to a guy who has his iPad open on the tray table, watching porn, WITHOUT using headphones or anything, and twice now his body has started shaking in the throes of his orgasmic bliss. I’m so disgusted.”

Shariat’s complaint did not conclude with just a tweet. She continued describing her ordeal in a series of tweets:

Someone at the airlines help desk got back to Shariat within minutes, urging her to contact one of the flight attendants without delay. Initially Shariat did not heed the airlines’ advice, claiming she did not feel safe doing it.

“There’s literally no way to do that without putting myself at risk. He’s in the window seat. I’m in the middle. And there’s someone dead asleep to my left. I can’t move. Which is why I purchased WiFi to tweet you,” she said in a tweet.

After the help desk insisted a second time to contact the flight crew regarding her issue, Shariat finally agreed, but also criticized the recommendation:

In another tweet, Shariat added as the accused was leaving the plane, “He looked at me, told me he hoped I enjoyed the show, patted my head, and then left.”

Shariat elaborated on the incident in a statement to Fox News.

“The first time he was ‘finishing,’ he used his left hand and gripped my right forearm, pinning it down to the arm rest between us,” she said. “It made it clear to me how strong he was, given how forceful his grip was, which is why I felt uncomfortable and reached out to SW [Southwest] on Twitter — hoping they’d ask my seat number and notify someone — because I didn’t know if he’d try to physically do anything else if I went to take a photograph or video, nor did I want to find out.”

In statement to the Huffington Post, Southwest Airlines expressed their deepest regret over the incident:

“We are deeply disturbed by the behavior described by Ms. Shariat, and we have contacted her to address her concerns and offer our apologies. Our internal reports indicate that the Crew did not witness this incident during the flight — and it was not until the plane landed that they were made aware of the situation. Our Crew then apologized to Ms. Shariat and assured her that they were not previously aware of the situation. This type of behavior on a flight would never be tolerated by any of our Employees.”

Shariat also tweeted out a screenshot of the airlines’ official response to her:

Shariat told TMZ after she finally reported the incident to the flight crew, all they offered her was a dinner voucher for her troubles. The airlines also confirmed they were investigating the incident. It is not clear if the accused passenger was arrested or charged.