Ibom Air has denied releasing the viral video showing a passenger in an indecent state during a recent air rage.
Aniekan Essienette, the airline’s group manager for marketing and communications, spoke in an interview with TVC News on Monday.
Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation, had ordered sanctions against any Ibom Air staff member found responsible for leaking the footage.
The minister said while filming the incident for use as evidence in court was appropriate, releasing a footage containing indecent exposure to the public is “totally unacceptable”.
Speaking on the matter, Essienette said although the recording was made onboard one of the airline’s aircraft, there were several people in the area who were not Ibom Air employees.
“As much as the video was taken on board, we had several other people that were not Ibom Air employees around the vicinity. So, anyone could have taken that video,” she said.
“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.”
The manager explained that the passenger was forcefully removed from the aircraft after resisting instructions to disembark.
“She had tried to come out earlier, but she was restrained because of some activities that had happened behind the scene and eventually, the pilot in-command had to call security,” Essienette said.
“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.”
On the rising cases of disruptive behaviour on flights, she said no airline would “go about their business with the intention of humiliating a passenger”.
The Ibom Air official asked the authorities to focus on preventing similar incidents in future.
