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Airline apologizes after sexually explicit movie airs on every screen during international flight

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Passengers aboard a flight to Tokyo last week got more inflight entertainment than they bargained for when an explicit film featuring sex talk and explicit images was broadcast to every screen.

Technical problems meant individual movie selection was not available on a Qantas flight from Sydney to Haneda, leaving the crew to pick one film to be broadcast to the whole cabin.

Their selection of Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn's racy drama "Daddio" was a surprise to many, and to the airline, which apologized Tuesday.

According to one review, the movie features "references to oral sex, masturbation" as well as a "brief but clear photo of erect penis on phone screen. Photos of a woman's naked breasts. Explicit sex-related dialogue and texting."

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Dakota Johnson and Christy Hall at the "Daddio" screening at the 48th Annual Toronto International Film Festival held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on September 10, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images

People who said they were on the flight shared their experience on social media.

"It was impossible to pause, dim, or turn it off," one person wrote on Reddit. "Here's the kicker: the movie they played was extremely inappropriate. It featured graphic nudity and a lot of sexting – the kind where you could literally read the texts on screen without needing headphones."

The passenger said that after about an hour, the crew switched to a "more kid-friendly movie."

The airline issued an apology.

"The movie was clearly not suitable to play for the whole flight and we sincerely apologize to customers for this experience," a Qantas spokesperson said.

Once the mistake was clear, "all screens were changed to a family-friendly movie for the rest of the flight," Qantas added.

"We are reviewing how the movie was selected."

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