Delta Passenger Downs 11 Drinks, Sexually Assaults Woman And Her Daughter On Flight: Report

A male passenger sexually assaulted a woman and her teenage daughter on a nine-hour Delta Air Lines flight. A $2 million lawsuit has been filed against the airline on Tuesday, according to Fox Business. The lawsuit has accused the airline of gross negligence and requests compensation for the victims.

As per the court documents, the attendants on a 9-hour flight from JFK Airport in New York City to Athens, Greece "blatantly ignored" pleas for help from the plaintiffs and continued to serve the man drinks despite him being noticeably drunk and belligerent.

The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Newyork claims that the drunk man behaved aggressively toward the plaintiffs and escalated into inappropriate touching over a nearly nine-hour flight.

The lawsuit further claims that the staff allegedly permitted the drunken man to exit the plane at its destination without alerting local authorities or US law enforcement about the alleged sexual assault, Fox Business reported.

"The intoxicated Delta passenger appeared to be getting drunker and drunker as the Delta flight attendants continued serving him alcohol," the complaint states.

The court documents claim that the drunk passenger was seated next to a mother and a daughter. The man after a few drinks tried speaking to a 16-year-old girl, who tried to ignore him. The man became aggressive toward the girl and began yelling at her.

The man made "obscene gestures," and demanded to know her address and other information about her. The lawsuit claims that the man frightened her by putting his hands on her back.

The girl's mother intervened and told the man that her daughter was a minor. The man said he did not care and pulled the woman's arm.

Other passengers also noticed the incident as the man was screaming loudly at them. The woman reached out to flight attendants and told them that they were feeling unsafe, they asked them to be "patient" and walked away.

The drunk mumbled that he was from Connecticut and began touching the minor again. He was kicking the seats in front of them. 

The incident took place on July 26, 2022 flight.

"What happened to them during a flight was not just a nightmare, it was completely preventable," the plaintiffs' lawyer, Evan Brustein, said, according to The New York Post.

At one point, the flight attendant did intervene and told the man to stop talking to the plaintiffs, the man yelled at the mother and teen "f---ing bitches", the lawsuit alleges.

Fox Business report said that the teen was terrified and began to have a panic attack. She put her head down in her mother's lap - and that's when the man allegedly slid his "clammy fingers" underneath her shirt and groped for the clasp on her bra strap. "Trembling, petrified and crying," the teen leapt out of her seat and away from the man, the lawsuit states.

But the man proceeded to place his hand on the mother's leg and allegedly "began moving his hand" up the inside of her thigh. She screamed too and jumped out of her seat.

The woman again demanded to change their seat, but the flight attendants allegedly said that there was nothing they could do. Moments later, a male passenger volunteered to switch seats with the teen girl and sat between the intoxicated man and her mother for the rest of the flight.

Once the plane landed, the flight attendants offered the woman and her daughter 5,000 free airline miles and an apology.

Delta told Fox Business that the company "has zero tolerance for customers who engage in inappropriate or unlawful behaviour."

"Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our people," the airline said.