All Men Branded Predators by BA

Mirko Fischer recently took British Airways to court over an issue that I feel was a long time coming. He boarded a British Airways flight with his pregnant wife and they decided to swap seats so his wife could sit at the window. BA staff on board the flight demanded he move back to his original seat as he would have been sitting beside an unaccompanied minor.

Mr Fischer, 33, accused staff of harassing him and said the policy contravened the Sex Discrimination Act.

BA apologised to the businessman but denied the policy was discriminatory.

The crew said the company's policy was not to allow adult males to sit next to unaccompanied children.

But Mr Fischer said he felt he was treated as if he was a potential "child molester".

He said: "I felt humiliated and outraged. They accuse you of being some kind of child molester just because you are sitting next to someone."

I was on a flight from London to Glasgow two years ago, and was asked to sit beside a small boy as he was an unaccompanied minor and I refused stating “You don’t know me, just because I am a woman doesn’t make me incapable of grooming a child” I wasn’t marking myself out as odd, I just wanted to address a point. The staff left me alone and moved on asking another woman to sit beside the eleven year old boy. I did get sneering stares from the staff, but I think I made my point clear.

Concerning Mr Fischer, BA initially defended itself and said when staff originally made the request they genuinely believed Mr Fischer was travelling alone and had no intention of embarrassing, humiliating or angering him by asking him to return to his allocated seat.

I simply don’t understand why British Airways policy is to not allow men travelling alone to sit beside a child travelling alone. They are basically stating that men travelling alone are sexual predators and can’t be trusted near children.

Now before you get into a knee jerk situation, yes, I would have allowed my daughter to sit beside a strange man travelling alone on a flight, as much as I would have accepted her sitting beside a strange woman on her own.

The statistics show that more men than women abuse children, I understand this, but I also can’t accept that labelling every solitary male traveller a child abuser is a good answer to the problem.

Maybe parents who send their kids on flights alone have to accept their children will meet lots of strangers and have to encounter situations where good parenting and commonsense come into play.

As far as British Airways are concerned they are telling small kids that men on their own, on the same flight as them are a potential danger. That can’t be comforting to children who rely on unknown adults who help them with their journey.

It’s time we stopped regarding sole male travellers as sexual predators, as we all know that simply isn’t true.

Good on Mr Fischer for bringing to light an issue that has bugged me for a long time.