Qantas Airlines was forced to issue an apology to passengers after playing a film with graphic sex scenes to all those aboard one of their flights.
The incident happened on a flight from Sydney to Tokyo, which had many families with young children on board.
The flight on Saturday, October 5, was delayed in Sydney for an hour as staff attempted to resolve an issue with the in-flight entertainment system.
Technical issues meant the cabin crew could only broadcast one film across every seat screen, and after requests from some passengers, Daddio was chosen.
The 2023 drama stars Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson as a taxi driver and his passenger as they discuss their relationships.
However, the R-rated film contains nude scenes and language inappropriate for young children.
One passenger described the movie as “extremely inappropriate”, telling Reddit it featured “graphic nudity and a lot of sexting”.
“The kind where you could literally read the texts on screen without needing headphones,” they said.
“It was super uncomfortable for everyone, especially with families and kids on board.”
Realising their mistake, the cabin crew quickly changed the film to Inside Out 2, followed by a New Zealand nature show.
A spokesperson for the airline said Qantas “deeply regretted” the “misunderstanding and inappropriate content shown during the flight” and issued an apology to passengers, promising to investigate how the incident happened.
“The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologise to customers for this experience,” they said.
“All screens were changed to a family-friendly movie for the rest of the flight, which is our standard practice for the rare cases where individual movie selection isn’t possible.
“We are reviewing how the movie was selected.”
