An NFL player is suing United Airlines, claiming he was sexually harassed, assaulted, abused and violated by a female passenger on a February red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Newark and the airline failed to properly respond to complaints.
The unidentified athlete, an African American male from New Jersey named only as John Doe 1 in a civil suit filed on Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is seeking damages from the airline for failure to uphold an “affirmative duty to aid and protect its passengers”.
The lawsuit states the player and another African American male passenger, who were seated in the middle and aisle seats respectively of an economy plus exit row, made four complaints about a white female passenger in the window seat who was visibly “under the influence of drugs and intoxicated” and made “unwanted sexual advances” before she was finally moved.
According to the complaint, the ordeal began immediately after the woman took her seat and began harassing the player over the face mask he was wearing in light of the news coverage over the novel coronavirus.
After complaints about the woman’s behavior to the flight attendants were allegedly ignored, the harassment “intensified” into sexual assault with the female passenger “grabbing and groping his quads and then stroking her hand across his lap towards the inside of his leg near his genitals,” the suit reads.
“Fearful of the perception of being a male victim and the racial stigma of being a young African American male, John Doe 1 patiently pleaded for assailant to stop and removed her hand,” the complaint states.
When the player left his seat to complain to a flight attendant after the assailant allegedly grabbed his penis, the woman moved to the middle seat and grabbed John Doe 2’s leg and “groin area”.
When the flight attendants finally approached the belligerent woman, who admitted she was drinking alcohol and had taken pills, she was moved to another seat, the complaint states.
The lawyers for the player and the other passenger, Darren Darwish and Benji Azizian, said the lawsuit “is about accountability” on Wednesday in a statement to the Guardian.
“Our goal is to shine a light on how assaults can, and are, being made on men, and not just women,” the attornies said. “This is significant because assault is assault, regardless of the gender, race, and physical attributes of the victim.”
A spokesperson for United Airlines said “the safety and well-being of our customers is always our top priority.”
“In this instance, the customer involved was moved to a different seat,” the airline said. “Because litigation is now pending, we’re unable to provide further comment.”
According to a 2018 report from the FBI, the number of sexual assaults reported during commercial airline flights is climbing “at an alarming rate”, having increased by 66% from fiscal year 2014 to 2017. The majority of the incidents take place on overnight flights of three hours or more where cabin lights may be darkened or alcohol is being consumed, the bureau said.