Qantas Airways is facing criticism after allegedly screening an ‘extremely inappropriate’ movie on all of its in-flight screens for nearly an hour before realizing the mistake.
In the past few months, the term ‘rawdogging’ flights has become familiar, but what name would you give to the experience of being unable to change the channel or ‘turn off’ a film featuring ‘graphic nudity’ on a plane?
This scenario reportedly unfolded on Qantas flight QF59, which flew from Sydney, Australia to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan on October 5.
A Reddit user by the name u/MariKontan shared their experience in the r/QantasAirways forum. They explained that the ‘in-flight entertainment system was down’ during the flight, and after a delay of one hour, the pilot decided to proceed with the flight. With no other option, the crew opted to play a movie on every screen.
We’ve all been in situations where someone takes control of the music at a gathering, and not everyone agrees with the selection. It’s a lot of pressure to pick something everyone finds acceptable.
Compounding the issue for the Qantas crew, once the film started, it ‘was impossible to pause, dim, or turn […] off,’ according to the Reddit user.
Unfortunately, the selected movie was not suitable for viewers of all ages.
The passenger elaborated: “Here’s the kicker: the movie they played was extremely inappropriate. It featured graphic nudity and a lot of sexting – the kind where you could literally read the texts on screen without needing headphones.
“It took almost an hour of this before they switched to a more kid-friendly movie, but it was super uncomfortable for everyone, especially with families and kids onboard.”
The passenger shared three images of ‘the scenes’ in question, though these were ‘only from the sexting parts, no nudity’ – presumably to avoid repeating the same mistake.
The images depicted explicit text conversations discussing body parts and intentions, clearly inappropriate for a general audience.
The Reddit user concluded: “How is this acceptable for a major airline? Has anyone else had something like this happen?”
Social media quickly reacted to the incident.
One person noted: “Wtaf lol. I believe this is the flight attendant version of ‘flipping over your desk and dramatically storming out’ on your last shift.”
Another added: “A single movie played to the whole plane? What year is it?”
A third queried: “Bruh why wouldn’t you just put on Shrek?”
Another user commented: “That is actually insane, like surely when you get the list of movies available you choose the least likely to offend. Like Finding Nemo or Despicable Me. How do you choose a movie that’s for mature audiences?
“Bizarre, definitely worth Qantas getting big questions about.”
In response, a Qantas Airways spokesperson told UNILAD: “The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologise to customers for this experience.
“All screens were changed to a family-friendly movie for the rest of the flight, which is our standard practice for the rare cases where individual movie selection isn’t possible.
“We are reviewing how the movie was selected.”