Woman Sent Creepy Message By Airline Staff Member

A female passenger shared how she was left "terrified" when an airline staff member sent her a creepy text message. 23-year-old Hannah Smethurst was travelling home from Abu Dhabi to Manchester for a week’s holiday on June 21 when the incident happened.

An unidentified man working with the airline company found Hannah Smethurst’s phone number in the database after seeing her passport. The airline claimed that disciplinary action had been taken against him.

Hannah, a third-year paramedic student from Lancashire, panicked when the man messaged her on WhatsApp, saying that he had seen her waiting to board the flight. She told the Mirror that she was at Abu Dhabi airport when she received a text from an unknown number on WhatsApp. She revealed that she was not just taken aback but terrified because she was travelling alone.

Woman Sent Creepy Message 

The man sent her a message saying he had seen her at Abu Dhabi airport. When Hannah asked how he got the number, he admitted to having gotten it from the airport system where he was working. Further, he had said that if she felt he was troubling her, she could just block him.

He added, "FYI, your flight is boarding," which caused Hannah to panic, wondering if he would be on the plane to Manchester. As she waited in line to board the flight, she spoke with the ground managers to ensure that it wasn't a crew member.

She explained that she was nervous, thinking that he could be on the flight. The managers had told her that it wasn’t anyone from the flight, and if she still wanted to make a formal complaint, she would be taken off the flight.

Hannah went on to share that they seemed rushed as the plane was boarding. She added that on reaching Manchester, she spoke to the crew, who were horrified. She had also contacted Etihad Airways, and they had gotten back to her, saying that the person who messaged her was the airline staff member who checked her in at the airport. Apparently, he had used the airline system to find her number.

The paramedic student said that the airline company had fired him and that she was glad they did because she didn’t want him to do it to other girls. She expressed how she felt so vulnerable, especially because she was alone.

Hannah had flown to Abu Dhabi to visit a friend and is now safely back home, but she shared that the incident completely put her off travelling alone. She claimed that she would never use the Etihad airline again.

The incident came to light after Hannah, who celebrated her birthday today, shared screenshots of the messages and narrated the ordeal on Twitter.

In response, Etihad Airlines told the Mirror that the team had contacted Hannah Smethurst and conducted a thorough investigation. They added that upon finding out about the misconduct of their employee, they had terminated him, mentioned that the safety and privacy of their customer was their priority and apologised for the incident.

Recently, a woman took to LinkedIn and shared that she had received a message after 10 pm that just said, "Heya". She added that women knew that the seemingly normal message was not as innocent as it seemed. 

The woman spoke about how she and many other women had shared similar creepy messages but had hidden the identity of the perpetrator and said it was shocking that men felt so comfortable harassing women. 

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