- Sputnik International, 1920
Americas
Sputnik brings you all the latest breaking stories, expert analysis and videos from North and South America.

Delta Passengers Sue Airline After Drunk Passenger Groped 16-Year-Old and Her Mother

© AP Photo / Ross D. FranklinDelta Air Lines airplane at Pinal Airpark in Red Rock, Ariz
Delta Air Lines airplane at Pinal Airpark in Red Rock, Ariz - Sputnik International, 1920, 30.07.2023
Subscribe
The man was served at least 10 vodka-filled beverages and one glass of wine before he proceeded to harass, and then grope a 16-year-old girl as well as her mother, the lawsuit claims.
A woman and her 16-year-old daughter are seeking $2 million in damages after flight attendants on a nine-hour flight “blatantly” ignored their pleas for help, adding that the attendants continued to overserve the man who was harassing them, the lawsuit claims.
“What happened to them during a flight was not just a nightmare, it was completely preventable,” the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Evan Brustein, said, according to a New York outlet.
According to the court documents obtained by a US outlet, during the flight from JFK Airport to Athens, Greece, Delta attendants continued to serve a blatantly drunk man who was seated next to the plaintiffs, giving him at least 10 vodka drinks and a glass of wine.
"The intoxicated Delta passenger appeared to be getting drunker and drunker as the Delta flight attendants continued serving him alcohol," the lawsuit, which was filed in the Eastern District of New York, claims.
The intoxicated passenger tried to speak to the 16-year-old who attempted to ignore him.
Angered, he became aggressive towards the minor, yelling at her and making obscene gestures. He also demanded that she tell him his address and other personal information before grabbing her and putting his hands on her back, which frightened her.
When the girl’s mother told their harasser that her daughter was a minor and still in high school, he allegedly responded that he did not care. The suit reveals that he then reached over the girl and began pulling on the mother’s arm.
Despite other passengers noticing the man yelling, when the woman and her daughter told attendants that the drunk, who mumbled that he was from Connecticut, was making them feel unsafe the attendants told them to just “be patient” and then walked away, the complaint said.
After violently kicking the row of seats in front of him, he then put his head down “for about thirty seconds,” then shot up and ran to the bathroom where he could be heard throwing up.
The mother and daughter asked again that he be moved to a different seat and that he be cut off from his drinks, but according to the suit, the attendants ignored their requests.
Then, when the man sat back down in his seat, he was allegedly holding a glass of red wine.
Things escalated when the flight attendants told the man to “stop talking” to the mother and daughter, which provoked him to start screaming profanity at the two women calling them “f****** b******”. The “terrified” daughter began to have a panic attack and put her head down on her mother's lap. That’s when the man allegedly slid his “clammy fingers” under her shirt and groped for the clasp on her bra strap.
"Trembling, petrified and crying," the teen leaped out of her seat and away from the man, the lawsuit states.
But that's when the man proceeded to place his hand on the mother’s leg, and allegedly began to move his hand up the inside of her thigh, prompting her to scream at him to stop before he also jumped out of her seat.
Again, their pleas to the flight attendants went ignored, but a male passenger volunteered to switch seats with the teen girl and sat between the two women and the intoxicated man for the rest of the flight.
Delta, which has not offered a comment on the lawsuit, offered the woman and her daughter 5,000 free airline miles and an apology. But the Delta staff also allegedly allowed the man to exit the plane without alerting local authorities or US law enforcement of his behavior. When the mother had demanded a Delta flight attendant contact the police she was told to “calm down and think about it.”
Delta says they have “zero tolerance for customers who engage in inappropriate or unlawful behavior”.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 2021 saw a tenfold spike in reported complaints to their agency regarding unruly and dangerous passenger behavior on airplanes.
The FAA found that most sexual assaults on aircrafts are committed by men, and that typically, the victim is seated in the middle, or by the window, and the offender is seated by the aisle. The offender uses their seating arrangement to their advantage so they can barricade the victim from being able to get away from the offender, and keep the victim from calling for help.
Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала