Teenager sexually harassed by passenger sues Delta Air Lines

A teenager who was sexually assaulted during an overnight flight from Los Angeles to Orlando is suing Delta Air Lines for negligence, claiming that flight attendants served her attacker alcohol and failed to restrain him after the assault.

As a result, lawyers for the 13-year-old girl and her family claim her attacker touched another passenger during the June 23, 2022 flight and then harassed the minor girl by grabbing her groin and yelling at her as she and her family attempted to exit the plane.

“What was supposed to be a joyful family outing turned into a life-changing, traumatic experience for a young teenager and every parent’s worst nightmare,” said the lawsuit, filed in federal court.

Brian Patrick Durning, 53, of Altadena, was sentenced to five years in prison in September for the attack and is currently in a low-security federal prison in New Jersey.

Lawyers for the teens and her family said in court documents that they were still suffering from the effects of the attack, which affected the girl as well as her younger brother and mother, who were also on board the flight.

The family is demanding that Delta Air Lines pay them past, present and future damages, including lost wages for the girl, her brother and her mother as a result of the attack, but no specific amount is specified in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed in state court on Jan. 30, but the case was transferred to federal court earlier this month because the court found that the damages exceeded $75,000 and the defendant and plaintiff live in different states, court records show.

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In the lawsuit, the lawyers claim that Delta Air Lines “enabled” the attack. Durning was visibly drunk when he boarded the plane and was served alcohol at the start of the night flight.

A Delta spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit in a brief statement.

“We have zero tolerance for unlawful conduct on flights and at airports and work with law enforcement authorities to this end,” the statement said.

According to the lawsuit, the then 13-year-old girl – identified in court documents only as ZB – was traveling with her brother and mother from LAX airport to Orlando to visit her family.

During the night flight, the mother sat next to her son, but the 13-year-old sat separately in a middle seat, with a woman on one side and Durning on the other.

According to the lawsuit, the attack began after Durning was served alcohol on the flight and the lights were dimmed.

According to court documents, Durning began touching the girl’s hair, breasts and vagina while simultaneously touching her genitals.

At one point, Durning called the girl “sweetheart” and told her he planned to take her away from her family to Texas.

The girl already suffered from anxiety and selective mutism, so she was unable to scream or call for help during the attack, the lawsuit says.

The flight crew was only alerted when the passenger on the other side woke up and saw Durning quickly pulling his hand away from the minor.

The passenger yelled at Durning to stop, switched seats with the girl and called for the flight crew.

Durning is also said to have touched the passenger’s breasts while she called for help.

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The family’s lawyers claim that flight attendants did not restrain Durning or place him in the back of the plane. Instead, they placed him in a seat diagonally and within sight of ZB.

This happened, according to the lawsuit, even though ZB’s mother had asked that he be taken to a place where her daughter could not see him.

Durning continued to harass her and her family and touched himself throughout the rest of the flight while looking at ZB and her family, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that he was allowed to move freely around the aircraft cabin, which allowed him to harass ZB and touch himself in front of her.

Before the flight landed in Orlando, Durning is also said to have touched the female passenger who was sitting next to him after he changed seats.

At the end of the flight, as the family attempted to exit the plane via the jetway, Durning reportedly grabbed his groin, screamed, and apparently threw his phone as he passed.

Since the incident, ZB has suffered from nightmares, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and panic attacks, according to his lawyers.

According to the lawsuit, she has been injured and her grades have suffered after missing about 40 days of school. She refuses to hug family members and “reacts negatively to her father touching her on the shoulder.”

“She used to be an excellent student and popular classmate, but today she has problems at school, does not want to go to school and is socially isolating herself,” the lawsuit states.

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According to court documents, her brother, who was 16 at the time, also suffered from anxiety and has since developed a fear of flying and a fear of strange men.

“He is afraid of dark public places like movie theaters and refuses to go anywhere outside of school or home without his mother,” it says.

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.