'He thought the whole thing was a joke': Woman recounts nightmare flight home from Indonesia

The woman, who asked not to be named, said the man touched her as she slept. Photo / 123RF

"I can remember a lot - like it was yesterday."

Those were one Kiwi woman's first words as she recounted when she was sexually assaulted while flying home from Indonesia nearly 18 years ago.

Several women have shared their experiences following an article which outlined one young woman's experience on a flight from Doha to Auckland on Friday.

The woman was repeatedly touched by a man who sat beside her, grabbing her hands and kissing them during take-off when the lights were dimmed.

She shared her story to raise awareness for other female travellers, prompting others to come forward.

Among them was a woman who described her 2001 flight as a nightmare.

"I wanted to cry but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction ... He just thought the whole thing was a joke," the woman said about experience.

"When I woke up, he had managed to unseal the blankets and had his hand right at the top of my leg, trying to get into my underwear."

The flight was leaving Indonesia, stopping in Brisbane, before heading to New Zealand but it didn't take off until around 3am due to a number of delays.

Many passengers onboard were drunk, the woman who asked not to be named said, consuming their duty-free booze before boarding.

Sitting down in her seat, she received unnerving looks from the man beside her, the man who would later violate her mid-flight.

She wrapped herself in a blanket as the man tried to spark a conversation but despite her best efforts to stay awake and alert, she fell asleep.

The woman woke up with the man's hand under the blanket and at the top of her legs, trying to get into her underwear.

"I was like 'Christ almighty what are you doing' and I whacked his hands away," she said.

"Then I kind of moved my body away from him and gave him the biggest punch I could possibly manage.

"I didn't care if I ended up in cuffs down the back of the plane – I was just in a rage at the indignity of it."

Following the attack, the woman tried to get the air hostess to separate them but she refused until the woman asked to speak to the captain.

Another woman who sat across the aisle said she was a witness of the incident and handed over her contact details.

No one offered the woman any words of support following the incident, not for the entire flight.

"I felt very alone and in absolute shock. Not just at shock at what he did, but the demeanour of the passengers and the air hostess," she said.

"When people were disembarking in Brisbane, he made a big show of changing his clothing out in the aisle while looking right at me and smirking.

"Honestly, he was just like a kid that had been given a new bike. He was so proud of himself."

The woman took legal action after arriving home in New Zealand and following a protracted process the man was convicted of sexual assault