FP StaffMay 20, 2022 10:30:23 IST
SpaceX reportedly paid a flight attendant $250,000 to ensure she didn’t speak out or sue the company after Elon Musk allegedly exposed himself and propositioned her for intercourse, according to a report from Business Insider.
According to one of the flight attendant’s friends, the alleged victim worked as a crew member on a SpaceX corporate flight. During one of the flights, the attendant told her friend, that Musk asked her for a full body massage in his room — reportedly, this was not unusual, and SpaceX had encouraged the attendant to get a masseuse license. During the massage, Musk allegedly removed the sheet that was covering the lower half of his body and exposed himself. While rubbing her leg, he reportedly offered to buy the attendant a horse if she would “do more.”
The allegations were relayed to Insider by one of the flight attendant’s friends, who was asked by the attendant’s attorney to sign a declaration backing up the claims in 2018. The friend told Insider the attendant refused to carry out any sexual acts on Musk, and that she was “really upset” following the flight. The friend also said SpaceX cut down on the number of shifts she was given following the incident, which the attendant saw as a sign of retaliation.
According to Insider, the attendant filed a complaint to SpaceX’s HR department in 2018, saying that her career with the company had suffered because of her refusal. The company reportedly took the complaint to a mediator, not a court or an arbitrator, and signed the attendant to a $250,000 severance agreement barring her from saying anything bad about Musk or his companies, including SpaceX and Tesla. This included talking about the payment itself.
When contacted for comment, Musk reportedly said that there was “a lot more” to the story, and said that it was a “politically motivated hit piece.”
Musk told Insider: “If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light.”
Employees at SpaceX and Tesla, however, have previously said that both companies helmed by Musk have cultures of sexual harassment. One worker at SpaceX said that the company didn’t take meaningful action after they reported being groped by coworkers, and Tesla is facing multiple lawsuits over its HR department failing to protect workers who were “objectified, threatened, touched, and propositioned on the factory floor.”
