Footage of the protest by SpiceJet crew at Chennai Airport in India has gone viral.
Footage of the protest by SpiceJet crew at Chennai Airport in India has gone viral.
Furious flight attendants have staged an airport protest after being subjected to what they claim was a series of "invasive" searches.
Footage of the protest by SpiceJet crew at Chennai Airport in India has gone viral. The group claim they were strip searched after leaving the plane on suspicion they had been swindling cash collected from items sold on-board such as food and drink.
They allege they were even told to remove their sanitary pads and were touched "inappropriately" during the searches. Furious, they refused to continue work at the airport, calling the searches unacceptable, NDTV reports.
"They made me feel very uncomfortable ... I was naked," one can be heard saying in the footage.
In a written complaint submitted over the incident, one crew member claims that she and her colleague were forced to strip in a closed room in front of female airport staff.
"They cited the need to check our bags. After the bag check was over, the staff forced us to take off our [clothes] and we were frisked in an inappropriate manner. All this happened in front of those female staff," her complaint says.
The airline confirmed that their security teams undertook "random pat down searches" of the crew but denies the claims of the search being inappropriate, stating that it was standard procedure.
"As per security and safety standard operating procedure (SOP), random 'pat down' search is conducted on various employees, including cabin crew, from time to time — a global industry practice," the airline spokesman told the Times of India.
Footage of the protest by SpiceJet crew at Chennai Airport in India has gone viral.
"One of the objectives of this search is to ensure that there is no pilferage of company money/goods, smuggling or any illegal activity that an employee may be lured into. SpiceJet has a well laid down SOP for such activity, which has been stringently followed ...
"The SOP does not entail asking anyone to take off their clothes. Allegations regarding deviation from these SOPs are being investigated and strict action will be taken if anybody is found guilty."
Airline fury over hostie 'orgy' rumour
It's far from the only sky-high incident to raise anger. Last month, an airline hit back at rumours its flight attendants were busted indulging in a hotel room orgy.
A series of steamy videos showing at least six nude people was uploaded to Chinese blogging site Weibo and were then shared widely on social media.
They show two men and four women having a wild time dancing, laughing and getting intimate in the room.
Rumours spread quick and wide afterwards, with speculations those involved were flight attendants working for either China Eastern Airlines or its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines.
However, in a document that's believe to be from China Eastern, the airline has angrily rejected the claims, insisting that people are trying to damage its reputation.
Note that sparked anger
On another note, flight attendants from a different airline were also left seething last month when they were handed a note from their boss.
United Airlines president Scott Kirby informed his more than 80,000 employees that their quarterly performance bonuses of up to US$386 ($534) would be eliminated. Instead, the crew would be placed in a lottery which would see less than 2 per cent actually gain anything.
Luxury cars, holidays and a grand prize of US$128,000 were among the new rewards on offer, with the move set to save the airline nearly US$400 million a year.
