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Home » Tips » FBI: Five Tips to Avoid Sexual Harassment Aboard Your Next Flight
SafetyTips

FBI: Five Tips to Avoid Sexual Harassment Aboard Your Next Flight

Matthew Klint Posted onMay 28, 2018November 14, 2023 6 Comments

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a guideline with five tips you can use to prevent against sexual harassment aboard airplanes.

The FBI reports it is receiving more reports of in-flight sexual harassment than ever before (38 cases in 2014, 63 cases last year). This is usually found in the form of unwanted touching. Just in case you’re wondering, such conduct is a felony and can get you thrown in prison.

Here are the five FBI tips to prevent and respond to sexual assault onboard airplanes:

  • Trust your gut. Offenders will often test their victims, sometimes pretending to brush against them to see how they react or if they wake up. “Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt,” FBI Special Agent David Gates said. If such behavior occurs, reprimand the person immediately, and consider asking to be moved to another seat.
  • Recognize that mixing alcohol with sleeping pills or other medication on an overnight flight increases your risk. “Don’t knock yourself out with alcohol or drugs,” Gates said.
  • If your seatmate is a stranger, no matter how polite he or she may seem, keep the armrest between you down.
  • If you are arranging for a child to fly unaccompanied, try to reserve an aisle seat so flight attendants can keep a closer watch on them. Highley has seen victims as young as 8 years old.
  • If an incident happens, report it immediately to the flight crew and ask that they record the attacker’s identity and report the incident. “Flight attendants and captains represent authority on the plane,” Gates said. “We don’t want them to be police officers, but they can alert law enforcement, and they can sometimes deal with the problem in the air.” The flight crew can also put the offender on notice, which might prevent further problems.

Should you run into a sexual assault situation, alert the crew immediately. The flight deck can reach the FBI from the air and a team will meet the plane (and if not the FBI, local law enforcement).

CONCLUSION

Not a very happy topic, but I’ve seen plenty of sexual assault myself over the years on airplanes (usually inappropriate touching of female FAs) that I figured it was worth covering. Easy for me to “mansplain” it, but if you are victim, do not be embarrassed or ashamed: report it and report it immediately.

More details here.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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6 Comments

  1. Sexy_kitten7 Reply
    May 28, 2018 at 10:41 am

    I’m surprised you haven’t been sexually harassed! 😉

  2. Andy K Reply
    May 28, 2018 at 10:52 am

    What a bunch of useless advice — “trust your gut” — this has to be a joke. In the world of #metoo and ever increasing blurred lines between perceived and actual harassment, the last thing we need is to encourage wannabe victims to trust their gut when they are not 100% sure.

  3. Luke Vader Reply
    May 28, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    Trusting your gut’ is NOT useless advice. Your gut instincts are (supposed to be) your first line of defense. as opposed to trusting busy flight attendants or other random passengers to protect you. What if you walk down a sidewalk past two guys who look at you ‘funny,’ and then you notice they have started to follow you… you should totally ignore your gut, right (since they have done absolutely nothing wrong so far)?

    Of course, gut instincts don’t prove harassment and instincts can be wrong (as well as right), but can help a person raise their awareness and guard. Tips #2 through #5 obviously list more specific advice and steps to take. But no list of tips/guidelines is foolproof, which leads back to tip #1.

  4. Ronnie Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 8:06 am

    What about punishing the offenders so they just won’t do it…

  5. Paolo Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 8:19 am

    Is it common? I have to say that in more than 60 years flying, millions and millions of miles, many thousands of flights….I have never seen a single incident of harassment, neither passenger nor FA. Maybe the luck of the draw but I do wonder just how prevalent this can be. FBI? Really?

  6. Opting Out Reply
    October 11, 2019 at 12:49 pm

    It used to be that some females would request to change a seat if she had to sit next to a male. I think it is now better for a male to request to change seats if he finds out a young twenty-some good looking female is sitting next to him. In a world where an accusation is enough for punishment, who wants to sit next to a woman these days? As a male and frequent flyer, I always hope to sit next to some other not obese male who either sleeps or reads a book (like I do). It’s safe…for both of us.

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