Saudia Crew Violently Assaulted (By Colleagues?)

Saudia Crew Violently Assaulted (By Colleagues?)

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While details are still emerging, this situation is horrible no matter how you slice it.

Tunisian media is reporting that one Saudia crew member is in critical condition and six Saudia crew members have been arrested following a violent assault in Tunis. The Saudia crew had a layover in Tunis, and one of the crew members was allegedly found in critical condition at the hotel’s pool after a night out, and is now in intensive care.

As a result of this incident, Saudia’s flight from Tunis to Jeddah on Saturday, June 15 (SV366), was canceled.

Saudia has confirmed the injury of a crew member on Twitter, though hasn’t acknowledged that other crew members have been arrested in conjunction with this incident.

While details here are still emerging, it’s concerning if six crew members have been arrested in connection with this.

As of now we don’t know if all the people arrested were cabin crew, or if pilots were also arrested. One interesting dynamic with Saudia cabin crew is that they have a pretty even split between “local” cabin crew and foreigners.

All of the local cabin crew are Saudi men, while a majority of the foreign cabin crew are females from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

There’s sometimes tension between these two groups, given that generally speaking the local crews tend to boss around the foreign crews and not treat them fairly (for example, read about my flight on Saudia from Colombo to Jeddah, where business class passengers were second class citizens — the male Saudi cabin crew were served first).

I only bring this up because:

  • The fact that six crew were arrested suggests authorities have reason to believe the crew was involved
  • The fact that six crew were arrested suggests this wasn’t just an altercation between one crew member and the victim, but rather may have been something coordinated

We also don’t know if it was one of the (probably female) foreign crew members who was violently assaulted, or one of the local men.

I think most people probably have a couple of different scenarios playing out in their head, though it’s only speculation at this point.

Here’s to hoping that the injured crew member is able to make a full recovery, and that a full and transparent investigation is done, so that the person (or people) responsible are held accountable.

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  1. Fiz Guest

    Utter rubbish. Social media is such a toilet. Stop spreading chaos , giving false information when you do not have complete information about the incident , you have no proper knowledge about the airline culture and no knowledge about the cabin crew and their terms with each other. Stop being so smart because your article shows you are simply an ignorant. Shows you low IQ and your mindset , shame on you.

  2. EM Guest

    SV366 is mainly manned by Egypt, Moroccan and Saudi crew and not from SE Asia.

  3. glenn t Diamond

    Another report, no matter how it finally plays out, for me to continue to actively avoid Saudi Airlines.

  4. David S Gold

    Keep in mind that is is also not unknown to detain all parties until the police have a better understanding of what happened.

  5. M Guest

    Saudi has a bit of a habit helping its countrymen disappear when they get into trouble...

    https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/revealed-the-saudi-government-has-helped-five-of-its-citizens-at-college-in-oregon-flee-the-us-after-they-were-convicted-or-charged-with-manslaughter-rape-and-child-porn/ar-BBSfzP9

  6. Craig Guest

    "I think most people probably have a couple of different scenarios playing out in their head, though it’s only speculation at this point."

    Let's be honest, after the Khashoggi incident we all feel thankful that we have heads.

  7. Pierre Diamond

    Lucky...

    Dissertation over skin care and the use of wet towels... ?
    Broken eggs in a brawl among hooligans? (was the Tunis consulate closed and therefore unavailable?)
    WHO CARES ? (not I, most certainly)
    Isn't this supposed to be a travel blog?

  8. Aziz Guest

    @globetrotter
    Don’t know where you get your news from dude, but you might reconsider that source.

    The injured person in question is a Saudi citizen as confirmed by the airline itself, so we actually do know that bit of information.

    Now grab some popcorn and enjoy the ignorant/racist comments directed at 40 million people that show up on posts like this with little to no resistance.

  9. globetrotter Member

    It is highly unlikely that any foreigner crew would attack Saudi citizens inside or outside Saudi Arabia. We watch news that Saudi religious police attack women in public when they do not cover themselves enough or when they express/ flaunt affection in public. They attack the victim in pack. We must feel fortunate and blessed that we do not have to seek employment that requires no special skills or high education in countries like Saudi...

    It is highly unlikely that any foreigner crew would attack Saudi citizens inside or outside Saudi Arabia. We watch news that Saudi religious police attack women in public when they do not cover themselves enough or when they express/ flaunt affection in public. They attack the victim in pack. We must feel fortunate and blessed that we do not have to seek employment that requires no special skills or high education in countries like Saudi Arabia. Filipinas who work in Saudi Arabia are pressured/ coerced to convert to Islam and are subjected to sexual harassment or worse, especially in a confined work environment such as employer's residence.

  10. Endre Diamond

    @arab. It was tongue and cheak. Referring to the Jamal Khashoggi incident where the embassy also claimed that Mr Khashoggi left embassy without any visible harm.

  11. Arab Guest

    The tweet uses male nouns for the injured crew. So "we also don’t know if it was one of the (probably female) foreign crew members" is probably wrong.
    @Endre the tweet says critically injured and confirms the Tunisians and the embassy are investigating the incident.

  12. Endre Diamond

    Per Saudi Prince, the crew member left hotel on foot with absolutely no visible injuries

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Fiz Guest

Utter rubbish. Social media is such a toilet. Stop spreading chaos , giving false information when you do not have complete information about the incident , you have no proper knowledge about the airline culture and no knowledge about the cabin crew and their terms with each other. Stop being so smart because your article shows you are simply an ignorant. Shows you low IQ and your mindset , shame on you.

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EM Guest

SV366 is mainly manned by Egypt, Moroccan and Saudi crew and not from SE Asia.

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glenn t Diamond

Another report, no matter how it finally plays out, for me to continue to actively avoid Saudi Airlines.

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