Morality transcends time and space, but it’s 2019 for crying out loud. Was a pervert expecting words of affirmation when he groped a woman sitting with her daughter on an American Airlines flight to Salt Lake City?
The incident occurred on an American Airlines flight, AA807, from Charlotte (CLT) to Salt Lake (SLC). Surprise, surprise: alcohol played a roll.
James Clayton Cholewinski-Boy, 32, now faces a charge of public intoxication and abusive sexual conduct after the following occurred:
- He sat down next to a woman and her daughter
- Not long after takeoff, he touched the woman’s arm
- She pushed him away
- Moments later, he grabbed her in the crotch
- She pushed him away and loudly told him to stop
- He threw up his hands and loudly said “sorry”
- Flight attendants were notified and the woman and her daughter were moved to other seats
- American opted to divert the flight to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he was arrested
Cholewinski-Boy was booked but released the following day after promising to appear at his upcoming court date.
American Airlines said:
The quick actions of our crew ensured the safety and wellbeing of our customers on the flight.
CONCLUSION
I bring up these stories over and over again because I find them to be 1.) newsworthy in their disgusting disregard for human dignity and 2.) all share a common theme. That theme that weaves each story together is alcohol. No, dear reader, I am not going to get up on my soapbox and condemn alcohol in a blanket fashion. But just this week I sat down next to a seatmate who had a few too many and took advantage of his inebriated state to slur words and go on tirade about the impeachment of President Trump. When will people ever learn? Hopefully these sorts of stories will serve as a reminder to anyone who wishes to drink and fly that self-control is a cardinal virtue.
I fully support diverting for this. Short term pain for hopefully long term gain when people start to realize they can’t get away with this.
Hopefully he was charged with the cost of diverting.
I disagree that diverting the flight is the best option. Apparently there is an air marshal in every plane. Correct? Thus, the air marshal should have the authority to restrain that pervert and throw him in one of the lavatories until plane arrives at destination. The pervert then gets flushed together with all the garbage from the plane and taken to jail. Diverting a plane causes way too much hassle to every passenger and gives the pervert the attention he is looking for.
There isn’t an air marshal on every plane. There too few air marshals in the program. In fact, according OMAAT, “less than 1 percent of all U.S. flights have an air marshal aboard”.
That is an estimate though. Information is confidential so we don’t know exactly how many flights contain air marshals.
Completely agree. It’s LUDICROUS to divert over this. The FAs dealt with it, presumably an Air Marshall to intervene if things escalated…yet the weak sisters in command chose to divert, inconveniencing hundreds, rather than have him arrested on arrival in SLC.
Part of the fault in these instances is with airlines and airports: they ply passengers with booze ( for marketing or profit) and then wonder why drunks get unpleasant.
There’s a strong case to be made for severely restricting alcohol in aviation, if not eliminating it entirely ( the latter would be sad as 99% + don’t have a problem with it)
Have we heard his side of the story? We don’t even know the nature of the exchange between the two passengers. I agree that alcohol complicates things severely, but it does not make him automatically the guilty one. Remember, innocent until proven guilty.
This is not about establishing guilt vs. innocence. If he was intoxicated, and the other female was a sober witness with no apparent reason to corroborate a false story, and the victim was able to articulate specific details of what happened, then it is a reasonable conclusion that he did something very wrong and was a danger to other passengers. Your guilt vs. innocence question only comes into play once specific charges have been leveled against him (e.g. assault, harassment, etc.), if any.
What would his side of the story be? “I was horny and wanted to grab her crotch, and how rude of her not to gratefully accept it?”
There was no threat to life or safety. The woman and child were moved to another seat and we don’t have his side of the story. Strange that they would divert because of that. Now the guy is arrested in a city that is neither the city of his origin or destination. Very silly of AA and a huge inconvenience to the passengers who miss their connections and for employees in the hub who have to rebook the passengers and reroute their late bags.
“she pushed him away and loudly told him to stop”
Good for her! So often, people are uncomfortable making a fuss even when they are being subjected to inappropriate behavior.
Either divert, or else drop down to about 10,000 feet, slow up the plane to just above Vmc, depressurize the cabin, pop a door, and push the idiot out.
That’s the best option.
Yes alcohol plays a part and I agree with seriously limiting alcohol on planes. But even most drunk people don’t sexually assault strangers. Alcohol lowers inhibitions. It doesn’t make you a predator. He didn’t get the wrong idea on his date. He grabbed a stranger. The FAs shouldn’t have to risk their safety the remainder of the flight with this man. Diverting was the best option.
Unless they wanted to tie him up to keep him from doing the same to the same woman or another, diverting was the right thing to do. Hopefully, he’ll have a number of years where he can enjoy playing crotch grab with fellow inmates.
@Aaron +1