This Airline Apologizes After Film With Rating R Screened On All Airplane Screens On Flight

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Simply Aviation)

JAKARTA - The situation on the Qantas plane recently became a scene, when a R-rated film was screened on all aircraft screens.

The airline in a statement confirmed to CNN, as quoted October 8, passengers on a flight from Sydney to Tokyo Haneda Airport last week were unable to select films individually due to technical problems with the in-plane entertainment system.

"Our crew has a limited list of films that can be screened on all screens on the plane and based on requests from a number of passengers, a particular film was selected for the entire flight," the statement said.

Although Qantas did not name the film in its statement, several in-plane screen photos posted on social media by users claiming to be on the flight showed the film was "Daddio".

The 2023 drama film, starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, was ranked R by the United States Film Association "because of the language used, sexual material, and short graphic nudity."

According to an upload from a Reddit user reportedly on the flight, in addition to nudity, the film also features "many sex messages, types of sex messages that make you really able to read text on screen without requiring headphones."

"It took almost an hour before they switched to a more child-friendly film, but it was very uncomfortable for everyone, especially with their families and children on the plane," the post said, which included a phone text image featured in the film, noting that passengers cannot stop or turn off their screen.

In a statement, Qantas said, the flight crew initially attempted to repair the screen for customers who did not want to watch the film. Once confirmed that this was not possible, they then replaced it with a children's film.

The airline said cabin crew had apologized to passengers, "especially those who have complained about the film's content" and will follow up.

"The film is clearly not suitable for playing during the flight and we sincerely apologize to customers for this experience," said a Qantas spokesman.

"All screens are replaced with family-friendly films for the rest of the flight, which is our standard practice for rare cases where individual film selection is not possible. We are reviewing how the film was selected," he added.