Woman Says She Caught A Passenger Filming Her Breastfeeding—Then Took His Photo And Reported Him

A Frontier Airlines passenger says a man began filming her as she breastfed her 10-month old after a flight delay. She says she photographed him and reported his seat number to airline crew. Passengers want babies to be quiet on planes. Feeding them helps. Making a mother uncomfortable while she’s doing that is pretty lousy. And filming a woman breastfeeding? Look, you can scratch whatever itches you’ve got free on the internet. Just save that for later. The 28-year-old mother shared her account on Reddit of traveling home with her son after helping her sister-in-law out of state. She says the delay lasted long enough that the bottle she’d prepared was no longer usable, while the rest of her milk was still frozen. She began nursing, trying to stay covered. Then she noticed a woman by a window stand up and look toward her. According to the mother: I watched her say something to her bf who IMMEDIATELY took out his phone, started recording and angled it to show me breastfeeding my son. Got recorded while breastfeedingby u/Lostintheworl in NewParents She later explained that the plane was about to take off and the flight attendants had finished their safety checks and were going to sit down. She says she reported the man to staff, who identified him from his seat number, and contacted Frontier afterward. In a follow-up comment, she added: Yes I reported him and will hopefully hear back from frontier. I have his seat number and a photo of him. Nursing is allowed on a plane, and so are breast pumps and breast milk in addition to a passenger’s personal item. Some commenters wanted her to call the man out loudly, while others get into arguments over whether recording someone in public is legal (in the U.S. it generally is). Apparently in England and Wales, though, a specific breastfeeding voyeurism offence introduced in 2022 covers nonconsensual recording for sexual gratification or to humiliate, alarm or distress the person breastfeeding. It can apply in public, including when no breast is exposed. It’s the purpose there that matters, because it’s the U.K. I’ve defended passengers’ ability to film airline employees. Video can establish what happened when an airline would otherwise dismiss a complaint. Deliberately aiming a camera at a nursing mother is still highlhy inappropriate – even in cases where nursing escalates into something bigger. In 2021, an American Airlines passenger said a flight attendant threw a paper towel over her baby’s face and called her disgusting while she was breastfeeding. That flight had rolling delays, too. In 2023, a mother flying American from Des Moines to Charlotte said three flight attendants told her covering up was “common courtesy” around men and children. That was… not the airline’s policy. Last year, a British Airways business class passenger said a flight attendant lifted her nursing cover, exposing her while asking whether she wanted her meal. There have been much better responses, too. Philippine Airlines flight attendant Patrisha Organo famously breastfed a passenger’s hungry baby herself in 2018 when the mother didn’t have formula. (HT: A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge) Topics on this page