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By Chinelo Obogo
A passenger aboard the Ibom Air flight from Uyo to Lagos has alleged that one of the airline’s flight attendants provoked a passenger, Ms Comfort Emmanson, before the aircraft’s departure and during the flight.
David Ogede, a lawyer who said he sat next to Emmanson during the flight, detailed his account to Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme. According to Ogede, the incident began with routine safety instructions but eventually escalated. He said the first flight attendant instructed all passengers to switch off their phones completely before takeoff and that no airplane mode was allowed and also explained they could turn them back on after departure.
He said however, when Emmanson explained that her phone’s power button was malfunctioning, the interaction took a different turn.
“The first air hostess addressed us on emergency exit protocols. After she finished, she approached Emmanson. Even from her posture, it was clear she came looking for trouble. Emmanson had been handling her phone and I noticed she was trying to do something, but I’m not sure what.
“The air hostess told her, ‘Switch off your phone, switch off your phone.’ Emmanson replied clearly, ‘Please, the buttons on my phone to switch off are not working. They are not working, so I don’t know how to switch it off.’ The woman simply repeated, ‘No, switch off your phone.”
He said this back-and-forth continued until a second flight attendant intervened, making the situation worse. The second air hostess said, ‘Look, you are even using an iPhone. You don’t need a button to switch it off.’ Emmanson replied, ‘Okay, I don’t know how to do it. Can you do it for me?’ The hostess responded, ‘I’m not touching your phone. I’m not touching your phone. Just switch it off.'”
Ogede said when Emmanson continued to express confusion, the attendant attempted to give verbal instructions through the phone’s settings menu.
However, when Emmanson explained she couldn’t read and needed assistance understanding the directions, the situation deteriorated further.
“She asked, ‘Is there a button on my phone? Can you spell ‘general’? The air hostess began spelling it out: ‘G, then E.’ That was when the gentleman on my left and I spoke up.
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“We said, ‘What is going on? Don’t speak to her like this.’ The second air hostess didn’t even acknowledge us. She didn’t look our way to see that someone was speaking,” he said.
At this point, Ogede said he asked a fellow passenger to help with the phone since he wasn’t familiar with iPhone operations.
While this was happening, the confrontation escalated verbally. The situation reached a critical point when Emmanson questioned the treatment she was receiving: “Emmanson asked the second air hostess, ‘Why are you embarrassing me like this? Why?’ The hostess replied, ‘You had better keep quiet now. If you say another word, I will deal with you.'”
Ogede noted that the tension persisted throughout the flight, making nearby passengers uncomfortable and concerned about potential escalation upon landing.
“As we approached landing, the passenger beside me and I said in jest, ‘God help us. Let us get out of this plane before anything happens.’ But we also knew something was wrong. We were worried.”
Ogede said that upon landing, he observed that the first flight attendant, whom he described as professional, assisted Emmanson with stowing her items when she didn’t hear the landing announcements.
After touchdown, Emmanson briefly left her seat to use the restroom before disembarkation began.
“As a human being and citizen, considering how she was handled during the flight, with a little bit of humility and humanity, things might have been different.
“The woman felt she was being attacked and singled out. Just an apology and some understanding could have calmed her down. I maintain that if the phone issue had been handled by the first air hostess throughout, it wouldn’t have escalated at all,” he said.
