Southwest Airlines Sued After Allegedly Failing To Protect 16-Year-Old From Sexual Assault Inflight

WARNING: This story contains details of an alleged sexual assault and may be graphic and/or triggering for some.

An allegation against Southwest Airlines was filed by lawyers in California this week after it claims that the Dallas-based low-cost carrier failed to protect a child onboard who was allegedly sexually assaulted in July 2022. The documents state that the child was on a connecting flight from Las Vegas to Portland, and the 16-year-old was separated from his parents and seated between two male passengers.

On July 4, the lawsuit alleges that a man of 50 years of age boarded the flight ‘visibly intoxicated,’ and one of the passengers assaulted the 16-year-old shortly after the cabin lights were dimmed. The perpetrator is claimed to have grabbed the teenager’s leg several times, including his thigh and groin area. There are further claims that the alleged attempted to kiss the passenger while making lewd comments.

Photo: Carlos Yudica | Shutterstock

The assault continued, and the perpetrator grabbed the teen’s stomach reached into his waistband and towards his anus; and while the teen tried to push him away, the assault continued throughout the flight. On arrival in Portland, the teen immediately reported what happened to his parents and the Portland Police Department, which immediately began investigating the claims.

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The 25-year-old man from Oregon was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with indecent exposure.

Negligence by Southwest Airlines

The lawsuit, which Greenberg Gross LLP has filed, has alleged that the world’s largest low-cost carrier, Southwest, was negligent and that visibly of the perpetrator’s intoxication could have made the incident ‘entirely foreseeable.’ The plaintiff has released this statement following the filing:

“The reason that I am going forward and speaking about all of this is because there’s a lot of other people who suffer the same anxiety and fear that I feel every day. I want them to know that something can be done about it. Something needs to be done to make sure that children are made safe.”

NBC Chicago approached Southwest for comment, to which an airline spokesperson responded they don’t “have anything to share on pending litigation at this time.”

Photo: lorenzatx | Shutterstock

Assaults at 30,000 feet

Southwest is not the first airline to hit the headlines with alleged assaults happening in flight; in the last week, Simple Flying reported that a Horizon Air flight attendant has claimed she was assaulted sexually by two pilots. The inflight worker has claimed that there were multiple repeat occurrences when she first started with the carrier. Harassment concerns were raised in December and then again months later, and her lawsuit claims that Horizon took no action to protect her.

Filed on July 8th, the plaintiff is seeking unspecific non-economic and punitive damages against the airline and claims one of the pilots, who is married, had been sending explicit messages to her while working in flight.

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