Ibom Air has distanced itself from the release of a viral video that showed a passenger in a state of indecent exposure during an in-flight altercation. The airline’s Group Manager for Marketing and Communications, Aniekan Essienette, clarified in an interview with TVC News on Monday that while the incident occurred aboard one of its aircraft, the footage did not come from any Ibom Air staff member.
Essienette explained, “While the video was taken on board, we had several other people who were not Ibom Air employees around the vicinity. So, anyone could have taken that video. I can tell you categorically that the video was not released by us. It is rather unfortunate that it has gone viral. We do not condone such indecent exposure, so we would not have been the ones to release it.”
Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, had previously ordered sanctions against any Ibom Air employee found to have leaked the footage. Keyamo described the public release of the video, which included indecent exposure, as “totally unacceptable,” although he acknowledged that filming for court evidence was acceptable.
Essienette further explained that the altercation occurred after the passenger initially resisted instructions to leave the aircraft. “She had tried to come out earlier, but she was restrained because of some activities behind the scenes. Eventually, the pilot in command had to call security. For us to ensure that security takes her directly off the plane, our crew had to restrain her for a bit, and we saw what resulted after that happened,” she said.
Addressing the increasing number of disruptive behaviors on flights, Essienette emphasized that no airline would intentionally humiliate a passenger and called for authorities to implement measures to prevent such incidents in the future.