A man on a Delta Airlines flight drank at least 10 vodkas and a glass of wine before groping a 16-year-old girl and her mother, according to a new lawsuit.
Flight attendants on the nearly nine-hour flight out of JFK Airport in the US “blatantly ignored” the pair’s pleas for help including a demand to stop giving the abuser booze — according to court papers filed Tuesday, July 25 in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Workers then allegedly let the drunkard quietly walk off the plane when it landed in Athens, Greece, without notifying local police of an alleged sexual assault.
“What happened to them during a flight was not just a nightmare, it was completely preventable,” said the family’s lawyer, Evan Brustein, of the July 26, 2022 trip.
Flight staff allegedly served the man vodka even though he was noticeably drunk.
He “frightened” the teen by putting his hands on her back, making “obscene gestures,” screaming and demanding she tell him 5 address and other personal information, the family claims. He also told the mom he “did not care” the daughter was a minor.
When the mom complained, a flight attendant blew her off, telling her to “be patient.”
The unidentified man, who “mumbled” that he was from Connecticut, gave the mother and daughter a brief reprieve by heading to the bathroom to “loudly” puke before returning with a glass of wine, they contend.
Rather than move the man to a different seat, a flight attendant allegedly told him to “stop talking” to the victims, prompting an enraged, profanity-laced outburst from the drunk, who called mom and her kid “f–king bitches.”
The teen began to have a panic attack and put her head down in her mom’s lap, only to “feel the intoxicated Delta passenger’s clammy fingers underneath her shirt climbing up her back … fingering her bra strap and moving over her body,” according to the $2 million lawsuit.
She jumped out of her seat crying, and the drunk passenger then allegedly reached over and put his hand up the mother’s leg before she screamed at him to stop and also jumped out of her seat.
The lawsuit alleges the mother demanded a Delta flight attendant contact police but was told to “calm down and think about it.” The victims then switched seats for the rest of the flight.
When the plane landed, the flight attendants offered 5,000 free airline miles as an apology.
