Australian teenager’s flying nightmare puts plane overbooking in the spotlight

An Australian teenager claims she was harassed, had a panic attack and was forced to sit with a stranger’s child on her lap for six hours when she was kicked off an overbooked Etihad flight.

Lily Winward, 19, was returning from the trip of a lifetime after visiting Europe to take part in an Austrian athletics competition. The Ulladulla teenager was returning to Sydney from Athens in September when she was stopped by airline staff during her stopover in Abu Dhabi and told she would not continue to Australia.

Winward, who was traveling alone, was informed by Etihad staff that her return flight was overbooked and that she would be put up in a hotel 40 minutes from the airport for the night. Traveling in athletic tights and a tank top and without a change of clothes, Winward said she became anxious about not being able to cover up while leaving the airport.

She said that’s when another passenger, also kicked off the flight, began harassing her and trying to force her into a taxi with him. She told the airline staff, who she said did not seem to care about her plight.

“I was quite upset. I was crying and said, “I just want to go home; I don’t feel safe going to a hotel, especially with this guy bothering me. »

Her distress turned into a panic attack. Eventually, a staff member recognized the condition she was in and was able to return her to the original flight.

However, Winward was assigned a seat meant for a woman’s baby and had to hold the child on his lap for much of the flight.

“I just think it’s not enough, for someone who paid $3,000 for plane tickets, this shouldn’t happen.”