Qantas apologizes for playing R-rated movie in flight cabin due to 'technical issues'
“The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologize to customers for this experience," a Qantas spokesperson said.
Natalie Neysa AlundA commercial airline apologized this week after a sexually explicit movie played on every screen in the cabin on an international flight to Asia.
The incident took place last week on a more than 9 1/2 hour flight from Sydney to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, a Qantas spokesperson told USA TODAY Tuesday.
"Technical issues with the inflight entertainment" made individual movie selection unavailable, so a movie was quickly selected for the entire flight "based on a request from a number of passengers," the spokesperson for the Australian airline said.
The movie played: "Daddio" − a film starring actress Dakota Johnson and actor Sean Penn, rated R for profanity, sexual material, and graphic nudity.
"The movie they played was extremely inappropriate," a passenger on QF59 posted on Reddit. "It was impossible to pause, dim, or turn it off... It took almost an hour of this before they switched to a more kid-friendly movie, but it was super uncomfortable for everyone, especially with families and kids onboard."
A reader responded, "That is actually insane, like surely when you get the list of movies available you choose the least likely to offend. Like Finding Nemo or Despicable Me. How do you choose a movie that’s for mature audiences?"
When the crew learned the movie was not appropriate for all, the airline reported, it attempted to fix the screens for customers who did not want to watch it.
"Once it was confirmed this wasn’t possible, the flight was changed to a children’s movie," the spokesperson said. "Our cabin crew apologized to customers inflight, particularly those who had complained about the content."
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'Clearly not suitable': Airline said its reviewing how movie started playing
The spokesperson said the airline is investigating "how the movie was selected."
“The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologize to customers for this experience," the spokesperson said.
The airline official said its customer team will follow up with customers.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.