Hostess Lauren Curtin was awarded damages after she was sexually harassed by FIFO workers on a flight

IT WAS supposed to be like any other flight. But by the end of it this hostess was in tears.

Horror flight gave this hostie PTSD

AIR hostesses have to deal with their fair share of unruly passengers.

But it seems the lewd and “unacceptable” behaviour of a group of drunk FIFO workers proved too much for this young hostie.

The flight was so traumatising, Lauren Curtin claims she developed post-traumatic stress disorder after she was subjected to hours of drunken behaviour from a group of US oil company workers who not only made inappropriate comments towards her but also felt her up.

Ms Curtin was so affected by the incident she sued her employer Skippers Aviation for workers compensation claiming she became incapacitated and had developed depression and anxiety as a result of what happened on the charter flight from Learmonth to Perth in June 2009.

Details of the incident emerged this week after an appeal by Skippers against her claim was dismissed by the WA District Court.

The WA Worker’s Compensation Arbitration Service had initially granted the former hostess damages after accepting she had developed PTSD as a result of the incident.

But Skippers appealed.

In the judgment, it says Ms Curtin was subjected to “highly inappropriate and derogatory remarks, inappropriate touching, foul language and other unacceptable behaviour”.

It says the intoxicated passengers also threw food at Ms Curtin as well as the other hostesses working on the flight.

It also noted the Ms Curtin continued to work for the company for a further seven and a half months after the incident.

During her evidence in arbitration, Ms Curtin claimed that after she and another colleague cleaned up the mess, she reported what happened, then went home and broke down in tears to her parents.

She said the following Monday when she returned to work, no one at Skippers acknowledged the unacceptable behaviour or offered any kind of counselling.

She then claimed she received a letter from the CEO saying that the incident had

never happened, which she said made her extremely frustrated and feel worthless.

In the weeks after the incident Ms Curtin claims she spent a lot of time “in the toilet of the plane throwing up” and that sometimes on her way to work she have to pull over to throw up because of the thought of having to fly again.

She also said she began having nightmares as well as insomnia, then resorted to sleeping all day and led a “lifestyle of isolation and feelings of worthlessness”.

“It got to a point where I wouldn’t even leave my bed all day as I was too afraid and depressed to face the outside world,” she said in arbitration.

She claimed her boyfriend broke up with her as a result as she was becoming very moody and extremely hard to handle.

She talked about feeling suicidal at many points during 2010 and felt she had lost a year of her life.

“In that the whole of 2010 I did or achieved nothing,” she said.

However a flight attendant who was also subjected to inappropriate touching on the same flight, gave evidence that she did not notice a change in Ms Curtin’s demeanour following the incident saying that she was still “bubbly and popular” as well as very social.

In its appeal, Skippers claimed Ms Curtin was not incapacitated by the incident, and produced video footage of the young woman drinking and cheering at a rugby game a few months after she lodged her claim.

They also produced social media posts of her attending various events.

And while the arbitrator found Ms Curtin exaggerated her level of social isolation, it did accept she suffered anxiety, nausea, vomiting, increased alcohol consumption, that her grooming had suffered, disturbed sleep and nightmares, and feelings of isolation and worthlessness.

“The arbitrator accepted that the changes started initially at work and then spilled over into her social life, progressing over time, and that Ms Curtin had covered this up and put on a brave face. These findings correspond with the histories given to her general practitioner and the psychiatrists,” the judgment says.

In rejecting the appeal WA District court judge Felicity Davis said the symptoms Ms Curtin described the medical practitioners, which the arbitrator accepted, were sufficient to support a finding of a compensable injury and incapacity.

She also said Skippers accepted the behaviour of the passengers was inappropriate and offensive.

The judgment does not reveal an amount of money, saying Ms Curtin was entitled to weekly payments and expenses from February to September 2010.

Skippers Aviation was contacted for comment.