A lawsuit filed against Delta Air Lines alleges a teenage girl and her mother were groped by a drunk passenger, and that crew members on the international flight failed to protect them.
The lawsuit filed July 25 in U.S. District Court in New York against Atlanta-based Delta alleges that flight attendants “repeatedly served a drunken male passenger” alcoholic drinks on a flight from New York to Athens, Greece last year.
The lawsuit was filed by New York attorney Evan Brustein on behalf of the plaintiffs and seeks $2 million in damages. The mother and daughter were identified in the complaint by their initials.
The woman and her daughter were seated in the last row of the aircraft on a flight in July 2022. After the intoxicated passenger “began grabbing” the 16-year-old and yelling, the mother told a flight attendant that the man was very drunk, “making obscene gestures and touching her daughter inappropriately,” according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges the flight attendant “did nothing to help and just said ‘be patient’ before walking away.”
The lawsuit alleges the mother asked flight attendants for help multiple times, but that the attendants “were not only not protecting her and her young daughter, but they were actually encouraging it by continuing to serve the intoxicated passenger alcohol” after being notified that he was touching the teen and was belligerent.
Delta said in a statement Monday: “While we don’t have any specific comment on this pending litigation, Delta has zero tolerance for customers who engage in inappropriate or unlawful behavior.”
The drunk passenger eventually vomited in an aircraft lavatory and returned to his seat with a glass of red wine, according to the lawsuit.
The head flight attendant later told the drunk passenger “the ladies next to you are complaining that you are bothering them. Stop talking to them,” and then walked away, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that the drunk passenger began screaming, the 16-year-old passenger seated next to him “began having a panic attack,” and the mother pulled the teen’s head down onto her lap to shield her from the man.
Then, according to the lawsuit, the teen felt the man’s hand “underneath her shirt climbing up her back.”
The teen jumped out of her seat, and the intoxicated passenger then allegedly put his hand on the mother’s leg and “began moving his hand up” her thigh. The mother left her seat and went to demand their seats be changed, the complaint says.
The head flight attendant spoke to the pilot and “said there was nothing that they could do,” according to the lawsuit, and flight attendants told them no one would switch their seat. The mother said she wanted Delta to contact police and have the man arrested, the suit alleges. Another passenger on the flight saw the teen crying and sat next to the intoxicated passenger for the rest of the flight.
Flight attendants apologized and offered the mother and the teen 5,000 SkyMiles as an apology, according to the lawsuit. The complaint also says the plaintiffs did not see police waiting at the gate.
The lawsuit accuses Delta of negligence and civil rights violations under New York City Human Rights Law for failing to protect the passengers from the sexual misconduct of the intoxicated passenger, and seeks compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
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