A 25-year-old woman says she was forced to return to her seat next to a man who was masturbating during a United Airlines flight earlier this year, and that the man was allowed to walk off the aircraft without any apparent consequences once they landed.
According to reporting by NBC News, the woman said the incident happened on a September 3 flight from Rochester, New York, to Newark Liberty International Airport. She told the network she noticed the man seated next to her touching himself and staring at her.
She described him as “pretty normal looking” and “unassuming,” estimating his age at between 35 and 40. “I just got the sense [he] had done it before,” she told NBC. “People don’t just do those things at 6 a.m.”
After she reported the man to United flight attendants, the crew allowed her to leave her seat and stand in the aisle for roughly an hour, according to her account. But because the flight was full, she said she was eventually told she had to return to her seat next to the man for landing.
She said she told the attendants “on multiple instances” that she was “uncomfortable doing that.”
Five minutes that weren’t five minutes
The woman said flight attendants told her she would only have to sit beside the man for about five minutes while the plane landed. In reality, she said, it stretched on considerably longer.
The two passengers were seated near the back of the aircraft, which meant she had to remain next to him while other travelers ahead of them filed off the plane. Once she was finally able to leave, she said, the man simply walked off the flight without facing any apparent repercussion.
She later approached a United gate agent to report what had happened, and according to her account, the employee responded: “What am I supposed to do about it?”
Complaints filed with United, FAA, FBI
The woman went on to file complaints with United and the Federal Aviation Administration, and she contacted the FBI, according to NBC. She said United later offered her a $100 flight credit even though the trip had cost about $400.
She also objected to the phrasing a United representative used in an email responding to her complaint. The representative wrote that they could “imagine how upsetting and uncomfortable it must have been to experience behavior from another passenger that caused you concern,” according to emails reviewed by NBC.
In her reply, the woman pushed back. “I DID remove myself and ask for help,” she wrote, per NBC. “Additionally, framing public masturbation as ‘behavior that caused me concern’ implies that what occurred could somehow be perceived as acceptable.”
United, in a statement to People, said: “We are looking into this report but don’t have anything additional to share at this time.”
The airline has not said whether it notified law enforcement or took any action against the man.
In her interview with NBC, the woman framed the experience as a betrayal by the people whose job it was to help her. “It is the first time I’ve been purposely trapped by people who were supposed to be helping me,” she said.
A recurring problem in the air
The account adds to a long-running set of concerns about how airlines handle reports of sexual misconduct in flight, where crews have limited options and passengers can be confined for hours with no easy way to separate from the person accused.
The woman’s story has drawn attention not only for what she says happened midair, but for the response she says she got afterward — from a full flight that left her with no alternative seat, to a gate agent’s reported shrug, to a customer service message that she felt minimized the severity of the incident.
Whether United’s investigation produces any further action — and whether the man faces scrutiny from authorities — remains unclear. The airline has declined to go beyond its brief statement, and the woman has already taken her complaint to the FAA and the FBI.
For now, her account rests on her own recollections and the emails she shared with NBC, which reviewed them. United has not disputed her description of the flight or of the correspondence, saying only that it is looking into the matter.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-am-i-supposed-to-do-about-it-woman-says-airline-shrugged-off-man-masturbating-next-to-her