A lawsuit alleges that flight attendants on American Airlines failed to take corrective steps to protect a female passenger from her drunk seatmate after she complained about his poor language and unwanted sexual advances. To rub salt in the wound, the lawsuit further alleges that gate agents then tried to blame the victim for not doing enough to stop the predator.
Woman Claims American Airlines Failed To Protect Her From Drunk Seatmate In New Lawsuit
Gretchen Stelter has filed a lawsuit in Illinois against American Airlines, telling the following story:
- The incident occurred on a flight from Dallas – Fort Worth (DFW) to Chicago (ORD)
- Stelter was seated in first class and planned to work during the flight, even putting on her AirPods after finding her seat (a polite way of telling your seatmate that you do not want to talk)
- But her seatmate was a talkative man about her age
- Initially, she obliged his small talk (just to be polite)
- He ordered a double vodka soda, then another one
- After the second, he became “uncontrollably drunk and loudly sexually harassed” Stelter with “vile, offensive, and harassing comments”
- He said how much he wanted to perform sex acts on her and said he would “wear her down”
- A witness seated one row ahead had overheard the interaction and summoned a flight attendant
- The man then claimed he was “just having fun” and the flight attendant believed him (and let him keep his alcohol)
- After walking away, the drunk man continued his poor behavior, touching Stelter’s hair then trying to kiss her
- Stelter’s Good Samaritan seatmate in the row in front offered to swap sweats with her, but while Stelter was trying to get out, the man grabbed her butt
- Even after moving seats, the man continued to verbally assault Stelter
- With his behavior witnessed by others, police were called and met the aircraft
- The man was so drunk he could not walk and was taken off the aircraft on a stretcher
- Amazingly, gate agents blamed Stelter for not being more aggressive
- She filed a complaint with American Airlines and never heard back, prompting the lawsuit
That’s her side, and in her defense, even if she initially engaged with the passenger (just to be polite) that does not excuse the flight attendant from taking her complaint seriously.
Still, I’m not sure that AA did anything wrong even with only her side of the story. It may be the man was fine after his first drink but became sloshed after the second (meaning the flight attendant is not to blame for overconsuming). It may be that the flight attendant heard nothing vulgar or witnessed any unwanted touching and when summoned, did hear the man say he was “just having fun” and would stop.
When he continued, the passenger was moved, the police were summoned, and the man was arrested.
I know the low-hanging fruit is America Airlines, but it seems Stelter’s lawsuit would be better directed at the vulgar man…unless the flight attendant deliberately overserved the passenger or witnessed his nasty behavior and did nothing.
CONCLUSION
A woman is suing American Airlines, claiming its employees did not do enough to help her deal with a nasty seatmate. I need more info to make a determination, but if she was victim-blamed by ground staff, CEO Robert Isom should add that to the training list….
And maybe a question for discussion: what do you do with a seatmate like this? My (poor) instinct is to pour hot coffee on him…but in all seriousness, I think summoning the flight attendant every time he makes a crude remark is probably best.
I pretty much only fly SWA but they always make an announcement about alerting the FA’s about that kind of thing.
That being said…”just having fun” is unacceptable.
“Just having fun” is never a good excuse and the FA should have immediately done something about it. There’s no excuse for them.
Pilot ought to have cancelled the flight and deboard the passengers . Call the police . Problem solved .
At 38,000 feet?
Not a good idea to deplane passengers at 38,000 feet, but then the Boeing 737 Max 9 does offer that door that can deplane passengers at high altitude.
LOL!
This story causes me to muse why there was an attempt to prohibit alcohol and the disaster of that social experiment: Alcohol has gotten a lot of people into trouble. We need a better social policy in how drinking is controlled in the country. Certainly, the FA’s need better training in how to distribute alcohol.
I can see she has a point and wants some kind of renumeration for the FA’s not responding to her complaints of being harassed but there’s one of damages. Yes, she was harassed and even assaulted but not battery. The airline should give her the flight for free. I wouldn’t give a runaway award to her and her attorney though.
The FA could have asked the pax if she was uncomfortable and ask for volunteers to swap seats. Not defusing a hostile situation is a failure to perform basic duties. It’s shortsighted to blame alcohol for behavior when there is no evidence of drug interactions,medical history and personality disorders.
I chuckle when FA’s use the excuse “We’re PRIMARILY here for your physical safety!!!” to justify lousy service but in this case, they didn’t protect a passenger’s safety.
“… it seems Stelter’s lawsuit would be better directed at the vulgar man..”.
Stelter may have sued the man, which would be for entirely different grounds than her suit against AA. Also, he may be judgment-proof, meaning that he has no appreciable assets to pay against judgment against him. On the other hand, AA has what is called “deep pockets” and any judgment against it would be able to be recovered.
He was in first class. That means he most probably could pay up.
If the claims are all true, this was an unpleasant encounter with a highly inappropriate jerk. I have found choosing not to engage with this behavior yields a better outcome. I might have been happy to sit in economy to avoid confrontation. You will never be able to school a fully grown adult that is oblivious to being so obnoxious. And not worthy of a lawsuit.
That said, I find the American Airlines gate agent comment accusation interesting, as it follows the recent response to a nine year old being expected to recognize a depraved flight attendant. Looks like everyone must solve their own problems on AA.
@Maryland … He can be schooled by dislocating his knee-cap . Problem solved .
No Alert. In public, violence is never the answer. A lady alone trapped in a metal tube, smaller than a male, cannot anticipate the response. Best just to vacate. And while this seems a chicken response in theory always better safe than sorry. This is a nation that elected married man that thinks grabbing women by the genitals is okay. We have to be more aware of our options.
Shocking. Next thing you know, we’ll elect a man who enjoys showering with his young daughter and nuzzling little girls.
Could be worse, he could have asked for a Hawk Tuah!
Divert the Flight Off load and charge drunk, make him pay cost of diversion, FA needs recurrent training.
You write “the passenger was moved”… not tue, the airline did not move the passenger, another passenger offered to change seats. American did absolutely nothing proactive to assist the woman nor to address the toxic behavior of the passenger who apparently was inebriated enough that others in the small FC cabin would have noticed and not appreciated – if the woman’s story is accurate (and we have no reason to believe that it is not, at least not yet). If a woman had behaved in such a loutish manner, one can only wonder what the response of the FA would have been. FAs have a difficult job, and they don’t want to be viewed just as waiters with wings; then it is incubent to step up and perform the safety and security functions of the job and assist passengers from bad behavior.
FAs are not police . This would be a police matter . no ?
We talk about zero tolerance for bad behavior but the follow through isn’t always applied. The no flight rule should be used far frequently than it is now for flyers unwilling or unable to manage themselves. I agree she should file against him and not the airline but. As someone this has happened to more then once, I do think a permanent no ticket to fly might help return to flying the friendly skies.
Assault is the reasonable apprehension of harm and battery is physical contact. Male passenger committed both, which are felonies. He should have been arrested on landing and I hope the female passenger presses charges. Also lifetime ban from flying American. FA should be fired. Too many apologists here for this disgusting conduct, including the blogger.
We have one side of the story.
If it happened exactly the way the lawsuit describes, I 100% agree the man should go to jail.
Remember when the FA was notified the second time (after the assault and battery occurred), the police were called so they could arrest the man on arrival.
FA should be provided with non-lethal behavior modification devices. Clearly this boor would have learned a valuable lesson if teacher had a cattle prod at hand.
You mean what the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts uses? (they use such a device as a behavior modification tool on autistic people. It’s called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator, and no, it’s not an Elon Musk invention although it sure sounds like one.)
She should have grabbed him by the balls and squeezed until he passed out. Harsh, yes, but undoubtedly effective.
And that sort of thing I would support.
Checked out her Instagram. I don’t think she has anything to fear in terms of unwanted advances. She does look like she could use a payday, though.