AA Passenger: Crew Made Me Sit Next to “Masturbating Creep” on Transatlantic Flight

In a just-published essay, American Airlines passenger Chloe King describes how flight attendants warned her about a seat mate’s lewd behavior, but wouldn’t allow her to relocate.

An American Airlines passenger has made an astonishing allegation against the carrier in a just published op-ed piece. In the troubling article, Chloe King recounts how she was forbidden from moving away from a fellow passenger on a recent flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), even though her seat mate was allegedly spotted repeatedly exposing and pleasuring himself during the flight.

In the essay, originally published on Medium, King explains that flight attendants informed her that the man in the seat next to her had been caught masturbating as she slept. The cabin crew members told her that she would need to return to her seat next to the sexually abusive flyer as the plane prepared for landing.

“I woke up right before landing to have a flight attendant call me to the back of the plane and inform me that the man sitting next to me had been masturbating beside me while I slept,” King wrote. “The woman to his other side saw it happen and asked to be moved, and the French Police had been notified to arrest the man upon landing  –  they just wanted to let me know. What they didn’t do was wake me up and move me to a safe place. What they didn’t do was accommodate my request  –  after informing me of the assault  –  to sit anywhere else on the plane for landing. Instead, they made me climb back over the sex offender, trapped between him and the window for the rest of the flight.”

King says that she was inspired to write about her experience after not being taken seriously by American Airlines officials.

“Upon landing in Paris, I marched straight to the AA desk to report what had happened and was met with blank stares,” she explained in her piece. “I contacted the AA legal team, and after weeks with no response, all I received back was a generic email regarding the ‘disappointing service.’”

According to The New York Post, King is a New York City resident employed as a social media manager at the 5th Avenue department store Bergdorf Goodman.

“American always strives to maintain a safe and comfortable travel experience for all of our customers,” company officials told the Time Magazine op-ed website Motto in a statement. “We are reviewing how we handled the situation on this flight, and have reached out directly to Ms. King. During the flight, our crew requested that French law enforcement meet the aircraft in Paris. Upon arrival, French officials interviewed the male passenger regarding the allegations.”

[Photo: Shutterstock]