In separate August incidents, two men were arrested and charged with abusive sexual contact that occurred during flights headed to Seattle-Tacoma International airport.
According to court documents, one of the victims had fallen asleep on a flight in January after taking a prescribed anti-anxiety medication and consuming two glasses of wine — one of which was paid for by the alleged perpetrator, Babak Rezapour.
She claims she was awakened as Rezapour was assaulting her, and was concealing his actions from other passengers with his jacket. Laboratory tests showed that his DNA was found inside her underwear, although he had denied assaulting the woman.
The second victim was initially heckled with personal questions from Nicholas Matthew Stevens, who later groped her on multiple occasions throughout the flight in March, court documents say.
These are not isolated incidents. The FBI revealed in June that investigations related to sexual assault on flights increased by 66 percent from fiscal year 2014 to 2017.
Now Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has unveiled the National In-Flight Sexual Misconduct Task Force to examine current practices employed by airlines in responding and reporting sexual misconduct allegations, in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that was signed into law in October.
The task force will provide recommendations to the newly formed Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee regarding training, reporting, and data collection of sexual misconduct during flights.
“Establishing a national task force is an important step forward in our efforts to start addressing sexual assault and harassment on flights,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., one of the co-sponsors of the provision, said in a statement in September when it was inserted into the FAA reauthorization bill. “It makes clear that commercial flights are not law-free zones. If you sexually assault or harass another passenger or member of the flight crew, even at 35,000 feet, there must be consequences.”
The Association of Flight Attendants worked with Murray to advance the legislation and is optimistic that the task force will render “concrete policies and procedures and steps for the industry to take.”
“We really pushed for establishing a task force or working group so the DOT could bring all of the stakeholders together to really make sure that the recommendations of the policies and procedures were adequate to respond to these incidents, and also were reflective of the realities of that aircraft cabin,” said Taylor Garland, strategic PR coordinator for the Association of Flight Attendants.
The Association of Flight Attendants has conducted research regarding sexual misconduct and found in 2017 that 20 percent of flight attendants have received a report of passenger-on-passenger sexual assault during a flight.
The group also released a survey in May that found 68 percent of flight attendants have experienced sexual harassment themselves, but that only 7 percent reported the harassment to their employer. The same survey also revealed that 68 percent of flight attendants claim they have not witnessed efforts from employers in the past year to address the issue, although the survey acknowledged that Alaska, United, and Spirit Airlines have taken recent action by writing letters to the public and employees on the topic.
Airlines for America, an organization that represents airlines including American, Alaska, United, and Southwest, said that its members “take these matters seriously and do not tolerate harassment in any form” and that employees receive “extensive customer service training to ensure the safety and well-being of all our passengers and crew.”
“Carriers also have well-defined processes and procedures in place for crewmembers to report observed and/or reported criminal activity that occurs on board the aircraft to the FAA and appropriate law enforcement authorities, who are responsible for recording such incidents and pursuing the arrest and prosecution of offenders,” said Alison McAfee, a spokesperson for Airlines for America.
The task force’s creation comes as members of Congress have also pushed to fight sexual misconduct on public transportation. For example, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who is poised to become chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the next Congress, introduced the Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act in May.
“In the next Congress, I plan to re-introduce legislation to require passenger airlines, commuter and intercity passenger railroads, transit agencies, operators of passenger vessels, and certain types of bus companies to develop clear policies to help prevent sexual assault and harassment in transportation and hold those who perpetrate these egregious acts accountable under all applicable laws,” DeFazio said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “We must address this growing problem and this legislation will lead to safer roads, rails, and skies for American travelers.”
The task force is expected to convene for the first time in January, at which time the members of the task force will be announced and their responsibilities will be addressed. Garland said that the Association of Flight Attendants will attend the first meeting, which is open to the public.
“We are very much looking forward to participating in this,” Garland said. “We’ve done a lot of work on it and we really hope that what comes out of it are some clearly defined policies and procedures that can be implemented industry-wide so that when this happens on board … that there are consistent responses no matter the airline.”
