Article around verbally abused Woman on VS250 route

Just saw this on Loyalty Lobby

http://loyaltylobby.com/2016/03/18/virg ... inese-pig/

Interesting read, but is it just me, it doesn't seem to be the whole story. Parts imply that the female passenger was abusive back but not mentioned (might not have been!), and apart from moving the abusive passenger and reporting the incident to the authorities, what else could the crew do? (thought it seems he wasn't moved)

LoyaltyLobby takes the victim's account and presents it as the gospel truth.

This site http://shanghaiist.com/2016/03/18/virgin_atlantic_racist.php has an account from another passenger who was on board at the time.

She wasn't looking for her headphones she was trying to change seats before the flight took off and he told her not to (not a problem in my book as I moved seats shortly after). After an initial exchange they started arguing and it was more of a "did you hear what he said/she said to me" and she was swearing at him too".

The airline staff told him that he would be removed from the plane if he continued to make trouble and did try to move him to another cabin but the other cabin was full. They told him that he need to calm down and leave her alone - he was acting aggressively but as soon as the plane took off he slept right through the the flight and never even left his seat which was at least 10 rows behind her.

He also said he did have an illness but it wasn't a mental one. I was unable to hear a short exchange they had but she was equally aggressive at and swearing at him and they also told her to calm down because she was being disruptive - they both were. While he was out of order her account doesn't match up - she wasn't looking for her head phones as she was originally sitting at the other end of the cabin and that is not how the exchange started.

To be fair when they spoke at one point I couldn't hear what they were saying and but I think the Virgin staff handled it well considering that thy didn't see any of it happen and but they were great for the rest of the flight. He did come across quite aggressively in his manner but never looked as if he was going to be violent. It's just his voice was quite deep and he was a large man. And she gave back by yelling and shouting down the cabin.

It was his fault arguing over nothing and while I can't confirm he wasn't racist (because I didn't hear everything) the way see is portraying it is completely different to how it actually happened - although I have only read this article and not her account so...

Been reading the post about this on FlyerTalk, sadly it's another terrible example of the internet/twitter lynch mob - branding an entire airline as "racist" and calling for boycotts based on hearing one side (and a skewed one at that) of a story virtually none of them had any involvement in.

Hopefully the VS PR dept can get a handle on it, either way I imagine it'll blow over in a week or so.

[Darren Wheeler]

<Mods Hat On>

Given the attention this story is getting in China, this thread will be monitored for content. By all means discuss the subject but any posts similar to what is flooding the VS Facebook page will be removed. I remind everyone that we don't allow the use of staff names without their permission, regardless of it already being published on other websites.
Thank you
<Mods Hat Off>

What is flooding the VS FB page is horrible without any thought from posters that there are two sides to every story

This is terrible - i'm positive all just a misunderstanding. Perhaps my flight to Shanghai will be a little quieter than expected though...

To be honest I find some of the comments even worse than the alleged incident.

I've seen pictures of a Virgin Plane crashing because they are racists and death threats to the actual crew member! Completely out of proportion.

usual internet lynch mob, takes very little to kick off and it's impossible to control

too many 'victims' seeking to cash in these days

without photos, I reserve to judge if she is a chinese pig or not

[Darren Wheeler]

SRB's response.

https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/ ... ides-story

I am afraid this is sadly typical of the Chinese reaction that it could not possibly be one of their nationals that may be in the slightest way responsible despite credible accounts.