13 women were on the Qatar Airways flight to Sydney. The plane was about to depart when security agents on the plane asked all adult women passengers to get off. The Australian foreign affairs minister has condemned the action.
The incident took place at Doha’s Hamad International Airport on October 2. Two women recently gave an interview with Australia’s ABC Broadcaster. They explained their ordeal on the flight. After that, the incident came to light.
Consequently, the Australian government is outraged. The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, describes it as “grossly disturbing and offensive searches.”
The incident
The plane was about to take off when security officers boarded in. They asked all adult women to get off the plane. No staff spoke English to the women. They did not explain why they had to get off.
A mother of a baby had to leave as well. She left her sleeping baby on the plane. An old vision-impaired woman was also asked to leave.
“It was absolutely terrible. I can’t imagine what it was like for those poor young girls.”
The authorities took a few women inside an ambulance. Similarly, they took another woman to a dark parking spot. The authorities asked the women to strip. A nurse told a woman to pull her pants. When denied, the nurse repeatedly said, “We need to see it. We need to see it.”
“I was panicking. Everyone had gone white and was shaking,” a woman passenger said.
Three ambulances were waiting to perform medical examinations. However, the authorities spared old age women. They did not examine these women. But not everyone was that lucky.
Extraordinary incident
The incident shocked everyone. The authorities did not explain anything. When a woman asked a flight attendant, she denied any information on the subject.
“Why didn’t they explain to us what was going on?” a passenger said.
Aside from the Australians, a woman from France was also affected. All women received mental health support. The incident was reported to the Australian Federal Police.
“It is not something I have ever heard of occurring in my life, in any context. We have made our views very clear to the Qatari authorities. It is not something I have ever heard of occurring in my life, in any context. We have made our views very clear to the Qatari authorities,” the Australian foreign minister Payne said in her statement.
The identity of the newborn baby was still not found. Meanwhile, the child is receiving medical care.
Image courtesy of Vytautas Kielaitis/Shutterstock