In the beginning of October, flight attendants serving on board an Aeroflot flight departing from Moscow and bound for Chelyabinsk asked a woman on board to put a face mask on and subsequently removed her from the flight when she refused to comply. The woman in question turned out to be a 32-year-old blogger named Alena and known as @__miss__alena on Instagram.
She quickly came up with a resentful “revenge” plan: to find 200 women who would collectively book a dedicated Aeroflot flight and decline to comply with the rule prescribing that passengers wear face masks onboard.
“I would like to find 200 such open, brave and HONEST women [like me] 💃 share this post in stories and save it!!!”
“After my adventure with Aeroflot yesterday I was sure that there were still adequate and conscious people on earth, and there are many of us. Of course, there are more ‘pro-mask’ [people], but we are stronger, the truth is on our side! ✅”
“I would like to do an EXPERIMENT, namely to buy ALL TICKETS on one of the Aeroflot flights, to give these tickets to beautiful and **** great women (most likely the flight will be Moscow - St. Petersburg) and we all will refuse to fly wearing [face] masks 😀 we will be accompanied by an operator, lawyers, a psychologist and crazy concentration of female energy we can all see and feel in real-time! 😎”
“The plan is developing, we will find the money and I wonder if there are real girls willing to participate in this exciting adventure! 😁”
“In any case, this day will go down in history 🌟 [#shovemasksupyourass]”
“P.S. it will be [*** great] and karmically right if the pilot and the crew of the dedicated flight will be the same as my yesterday’s ‘heroes’ 😂 [sic]”
Although the post attracted some supporting comments, most people questioned the author’s logic and ridiculed her in the comments.
“What’s the problem with putting on a mask? If you buy a ticket and decide to fly with this company, please follow their requirements. They do not require anything extraordinary,” wrote one user.
Another user, who said she had heart transplantation and therefore a particularly vulnerable immune system, rebuffed Alena’s idea: “This is not a good idea. Please, think about things you bring to the masses, try to think about other people around you. For you [wearing a mask] for three-four hours during the flight means a little discomfort, but for millions of people around you, me in particular, [you not wearing a mask] is a deadly threat.”
The idea’s author was not convinced, however. “I think that the flight and pressure drop is more dangerous for such a person than the absence of a mask on [my] face! If I’m being honest, social distance is not observed on planes and lunch [boxes] are distributed. When everyone takes off their masks for 15 minutes [to eat] what will this person with a vulnerable immune system do and where will she hide?” says Alena.
The blogger says she is against wearing masks in general, on planes and elsewhere, because she believes masks are harmful to the health of those who wear them. “I will not ruin my health by wearing a mask for the illusory safety of others. I don’t mind if people wear them if they want to. But I don’t [want to wear masks],” she said.
As to her revenge plan, the blogger said a few thousand people have already messaged her on Instagram wanting to participate in the experiment and check-in while collectively refusing to wear masks onboard.
Asked if she was afraid of possible legal repercussions of her experiment, Alena said: “Aeroflot must be afraid of lawsuits from all the passengers for unlawful refusal to provide the service. I stand for all actions to be within the framework of the law.”
Does the blogger have a point or did she miss it completely?