Woman sues American Airlines after seatmate allegedly sexually assaulted her while off-duty flight attendant watched

An American Airlines frequent flyer is suing the Fort Worth-based airline for negligence after her seatmate allegedly “aggressively” sexually assaulted her while she was in a sleeping pill-induced sleep while an off-duty flight attendant sitting nearby watched At.

Tiffany Morgan is an attorney for a boutique entertainment law firm based in New York City and traveled frequently on American Airlines for business and pleasure before the attack. But now, she says, her ability to travel independently has been taken away and she fears experiencing a similar attack in the future.

An already nervous flyer, Morgan said she took two Benadryl before boarding American Airlines flight AA1623 last August to help her relax and sleep during the two-hour flight from Florida to Pennsylvania.

She sat in a window seat, and while the middle seat remained open for the duration of the flight, toward the end of the boarding process, flight attendants helped a tall male passenger with a cane into the aisle seat.

Tiffany says she fell asleep during drink service shortly after takeoff and was virtually unconscious for most of the flight. However, with just 30 to 40 minutes left before the flight, she was woken up when one of the flight attendants from the row behind tapped her on the shoulder.

The flight attendant urged Tiffany to go to the galley at the back of the plane. As a nervous flyer, Tiffany said she felt “scared and extremely nervous,” but she stood up from her seat and squeezed past her “visibly drunk” seatmate when she noticed several empty miniature bottles of vodka in the middle seat between them.

A group of flight attendants waited for Tiffany in the rear galley and asked her if she knew the person sitting next to her. When she told them she had never met the man before, the flight attendants seemed “very distressed.”

The flight attendants told Tiffany that her seatmate had “aggressively touched her breast” but they did nothing because “they didn’t know what to do.”

The off-duty flight attendant who witnessed the attack told Tiffany that the man first waved his hands in front of her face to make sure she was sleeping before blatantly groping, rubbing and caressing her breasts.

This off-duty crew member was unsure whether Tiffany was traveling with the suspect, so he brought the matter to the attention of working flight attendants. The news was apparently so shocking to the flight attendants working that they appeared visibly distraught, with one even reportedly admitting to over-supervising the suspect.

At that point, flight attendants found a new seat for Tiffany and arranged for police to meet the plane upon arrival. However, police told Tiffany that they had no jurisdiction over incidents on board and that the matter would have to be handled by the FBI.

Unfortunately, there was a delay in the FBI arriving at the gate over the weekend, so the suspect was not arrested and Tiffany was simply escorted to her connecting gate for a quick hop to Albany.

Tiffany says American Airlines has not contacted her once since the attack to discuss what happened on Flight 1623, and her attempts to contact the airline have gone unanswered.

Nearly a year later, Tiffany says she still has not received any communication from American Airlines about the incident – a fact that Tiffany says shows “their indifference to serious sexual misconduct on one of their flights.”

“AA’s failure to act or even respond is not only disappointing and appalling following a confirmed sexual assault against a passenger, but also raises serious concerns for other women traveling alone on the airline,” the lawsuit says , filed last week in a Florida district court, claims.

“The AA’s ignoring of this incident is unacceptable given the seriousness of what occurred and the crew’s simultaneous recognition of the seriousness of the incident and their role in allowing it to occur and/or perpetuating it,” the lawsuit continues.

Tiffany is suing American Airlines for negligence while also pursuing a civil lawsuit against the suspect for sexual assault and assault.

Matt’s opinion

Just days after Tiffany’s alleged sexual assaults, the FBI issued an urgent warning about what it called a “disturbing” increase in sexual assaults on board. The FBI says it has seen a significant increase in reported shipboard sexual assaults in recent years following a pandemic-related slump.

The Justice Department and FBI have compiled a list of tips to help keep travelers safe, including urging passengers to limit their use of sleeping pills during flights.

The FBI also says flight attendants have received additional training to deal with allegations of sexual assault on board, although Tiffany’s lawsuit is not the first in recent months to allege flight attendants did not know how to respond or deal with it should deal with the events on board.