A woman says she was left terrified after a member of airline staff accessed her details and messaged her as she waited to board a flight in Abu Dhabi. Student paramedic Hannah Smethurst, 23, was returning home from a week's holiday alone in the early hours when she got a string of 'creepy' text messages.
A member of staff got her personal details from the airline database and started sending her messages on WhatsApp, reports The Mirror.
She said: "I was at Abu Dhabi Airport when I received a text message from an unknown foreign number. I was taken aback by it. It was terrifying being alone."
The first message read: "Heyyyy, I have seen you from abudhabi [smiley face emoji]", to which Hannah replied: "How did you get this number?"
The man responded, "Sorryyy," to which Hannah asked again, "How did you get my number?", and then he admitted: "I searched u in the system."
The airport staff member had taken her details from the database after seeing her passport (Image: @hansmeths)
Hannah asked him to specify which system, "The hotel or airline?" to which he replied: "Airline. Sorry for the trouble. If I am disturbing u.... just block me."
He then added: "FYI ur flight is boarding", which caused the young woman to panic about who would be on her plane to Manchester.
"I was waiting in the line to board the plane and I spoke to one of the ground managers to check that it wasn't a crew member that was going to be on my flight," she explained.
"I was nervous that they could've been on the plane. They told me it wasn't anybody on the flight, but if I wanted to make a formal complaint, I'd have to be taken off the flight.
"They were quite rushed because the plane was boarding. Then I got back to Manchester and spoke to the crew there, who were horrified.
"I contacted Etihad Airways and they've got back to me to say it was the male who checked me in at the airport. He used the airline system to get my phone number.
Hannah was scared to get on the flight as she feared the 'creepy' male would be onboard (Image: @hansmeths)
"He has lost his job. I'm glad he was fired because I don't want him to do it to other girls. At the time, I felt so vulnerable, especially being alone."
Hannah added: "It's completely put me off travelling alone and I definitely won't use Etihad again," she said.
The student, who celebrated her 23rd birthday today, shared a screenshot of the text message conversation on Twitter, which has gone viral.
"This is so unbelievably creepy," one person said, while another wrote: "This is truly shocking and very very scary."
An Etihad spokesperson said: "Our team have been in contact with the guest and Etihad initiated a full investigation as soon as it was made aware of inappropriate conduct by an employee of a third-party contractor.
"As a result of the investigation, the relevant employee involved has been disciplined in accordance with the contractor's disciplinary procedures.
"The privacy and safety of our guests is our number one priority and we sincerely apologise for the distress caused to our guest."
