Ibom Air has denied responsibility for the viral video that reveals Comfort Emmanson in an indecent state during a recent in-flight incident.
Aniekan Essienette, the airline’s Group Manager for Marketing and Communications, addressed the subject in an interview with TVC News on Monday, stating that while the incident occurred on one of their flights, no Ibom Air employees shared the footage.
Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation, had ordered sanctions against any Ibom Air staff member discovered to be guilty of releasing the tape.
The minister stated that while documenting the incident for use as evidence in court was appropriate, disseminating footage with indecent exposure to the public is “completely unacceptable”.
Speaking on the issue, Essienette stated that, while the recording was made on one of the airline’s flights, numerous people in the area were not Ibom Air employees.
“As much as the video was taken on board, we had several other people who 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.”
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The manager explained that Emmanson 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 scenes, 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.”
Speaking on the rising cases of disruptive behaviour on flights, she said no airline would “go about their business to humiliate a passenger”.
The Ibom Air official urged authorities to focus on preventing similar accidents in the future.
