Melbourne couple Julz Evans and Cat Franke (pictured above) have shared their experience of being harassed by another passenger on a recent Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Perth.

The couple, who flew into Perth on New Year’s Day to visit family and friends, claim that another passenger harassed them during the flight because of their sexuality.

The couple shared their concerns on Jetstar’s Facebook page and expressed their alarm that staff paid little attention to the allegedly intoxicated passenger.

Franke (right) described the comments from the man sitting in the seat behind the couple as the worse abuse she had ever encountered.

“The man started off by keeping his hand on the top of my partner’s chair, then when I tried to share a kiss with my partner he pressed his face right up to the gap between our two chairs and started mumbling ‘kiss, come on I wanna see some lesbians kiss’.” Franke wrote in her feedback to the airline.

“My partner and I felt so uncomfortable because of this pervert we immediately stopped our conversation and sat as still as possible, hoping he would leave us alone. Unfortunately because we had not met his request he began his homophobic slurs, singing loudly and also mumbling about how we were faggots, dykes and poofters.

“He then began to kick and punch my partners chair while saying how we weren’t equals and rambled about his beliefs about marriage.” Franke said.

The couple say the abuse from the man persisted throughout the flight, and that cabin staff who observed his drunken state did little to help.

They spoke to cabin staff on disembarking the plane, and were amazed when staff said that they too had received abuse the man.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald Franke said it was disappointing that Jetstar’s crew had recognised the abuse coming from the man but chosen to “giggle” about his intoxicated state rather than take action.

Jetstar have responded to the couple’s concerns telling Fairfax Media that the man had only been served three drinks while on board and cabin crew did not consider him to be intoxicated.

“Our crew are trained to identify whether passengers are intoxicated and in this instance, our crew do not believe this passenger was.” a Jetstar spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said Jetstar do not tolerate any kind of discrimination and argued that the crew member alerted to the man’s behaviour was “appalled” upon hearing about what the couple had endured.

The spokesperson said it was preferable if people make cabin crew immediately aware of incidents occurring during a flight, and promised that this case would be referred to the airlines Behaviour Review Panel.

The airline has given the couple a $50 voucher as a goodwill gesture.

OIP Staff