An unnamed female passenger claims that American Airlines offered her 5,000 free travel miles after the airline failed to go after a man who fondled himself next to her. She also claims that the case wasn’t reported to the authorities.
The woman was traveling to Dallas from Orlando last week when the man started talking to her. He told her that he was going to visit his grandson and daughter. Afterwards, the man asked the victim if she wanted to have a drink. The victim declined, and shortly after, he started touching himself inappropriately while looking at her.
5,000 Miles
She was at Row 15A and beside her was an empty middle seat. On the other hand, the man who violated her was seated at 15C.
She said, “He was looking directly at me and, like, his body kind of pivoted and (was) facing towards me.” She continued saying “I can see that his fingers were up his shorts, and they were raised all the way up to his groin area. And he was just, like fondling himself.”
The woman recorded the incident on her phone. She said “I was, like, you know what now, like what do we do from here?”
She reported the incident to the flight attendant and was then given a seat at the back. Unfortunately, the incident appears to not have been reported to the authorities. The man simply left without being questioned.
Because of the incident, she called the airline’s customer service but was only notified that she needed to file an online report. The victim expected that filing an online report would lead to the police getting involved. Instead, she received a letter that said “safety is our top priority.” She was informed in the letter that she was going to receive 5,000 free miles as a “kind gesture” from American Airlines.
She said, “As a courtesy for your experience on the flight, we’re going to reward you 5,000 miles, which I thought was a slap in the face.”
FBI Investigating the Case
After her disappointment with the airline’s inaction, she approached authorities in Dallas. She was then told that the airline didn’t follow proper protocol. In these cases, the airline should register the complaint with officials. Law enforcement officers also told her that the FBI would be the one investigating the case since this occurred during a flight.
