A plane passenger experienced a bit of viral infamy after refusing to give up her seat on a fight to a crying child. After the video went viral, she experienced a good amount of backlash online.
Now, she's filed a lawsuit against both the airline as well as the person who filmed the incident. 29-year-old passenger Jeniffer Castro was flying on GOL Airlines in Brazil on December 2024. A fellow passenger filmed her refusing to give up her seat she booked to a child.
"Since that incident, my life has taken a turn I could never have imagined," Jeniffer told DailyMail.com. "What should have been just an ordinary flight turned into an extremely embarrassing situation. Exposing me unfairly and causing consequences that affected both my personal and professional life."
She added, "I was the target of judgments, attacks and speculation from people who don't even know the full story."
According the passenger, she had selected the window seat in advance. That's when she noticed the kid in her seat. "I waited for him to correctly accommodate himself in another seat. And then I sat down in my seat," Jeniffer recalled.
Passenger Sues Over Video
Someone began to film her afterwards.
"Throughout the flight, the child cried a lot, which, although uncomfortable, is understandable when traveling"' she recalled. "What surprised me was the fact that a person who had nothing to do with the situation started filming me without permission, insulting me and trying to publicly embarrass me. Simply because I didn't want to change seats."
The passenger said that she never expected to go viral online over the whole thing. She's experienced public shaming as a result.
"My reaction was complete shock," she said. "I never imagined that something so simple could take on such proportions. Professionally, my life has changed a lot, so much so that today I am no longer in the field I worked in before. I was a banker. In my personal life, at the height of the repercussions, I practically didn't leave the house."
She said that the viral video has affected her personal life.
"In addition to the emotional impact, I was also afraid, because we know that, unfortunately, there are many bad people in the world. I decided to sue the airline because what happened to me was a huge embarrassment, and this situation should never have reached this point," Jeniffer said. "No one deserves to go through what I went through, being filmed, insulted and attacked just for exercising a basic right. This lawsuit is not just about reparations, but also about setting a limit on this type of behavior."
