One could be forgiven for having reservations about taking photos or videos on board a flight on an Indonesian airline these days. After flag carrier Garuda Indonesia issued a ban on documenting cabin activities (which they later revised), low cost carrier Lion Air — the largest airline in Indonesia — has now issued a similar warning.
“If an institution or individual wants to document [a flight], it is mandatory for them to seek consent from the company first. And then the company will consider its policy,” Lion Air spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro told Kompas yesterday.
Danang added that the policy was enforced for safety reasons, but did not go into detail as to what Lion Air’s definition of flight documentation constituted and whether or not it includes passengers taking selfies or photos inside the cabin.
It’s also not clear exactly when Lion Air introduced this policy.
Yesterday, a circular by Garuda Indonesia announcing a prohibition on taking of photos or videos in the cabin during flights went viral on social media. Mere hours later, a revision to the circular was issued, saying that on flight documentation was “advised against”, not prohibited.
While there is no evidence that the circular was a direct response to a vlogger’s viral video about Garuda handing out handwritten menus on a business flight, the timing of the circular’s issuance led many to believe that to be the case.
Garuda has since said that the circular going viral was the result of a leak to the public as it was still being reviewed internally as of yesterday.
Nonetheless, the airline has reported the vlogger and his fiancee, who also appeared in the video, to the police for defamation.
