Victim Claims Frontier Failed to Alert Authorities About Sexual Assault

A Frontier Airlines passenger claims that after she was groped during a red-eye flight, cabin crew members made the inexplicable decision to allow her alleged attacker to simply disembark without ever alerting the police. The military combat veteran says the airline’s failure to follow federal guidelines means the passenger who assaulted her might never face justice.

A passenger who claims that she was sexually assaulted on an overnight Frontier Airlines flight is going public with her “humiliating” story only because crew members allegedly failed to contact police after the in-flight incident was brought to their attention. Combat veteran Lena Ramsay says she is speaking out in order to raise awareness and hopefully to protect other air travelers from having to endure similar lapses in judgement by cabin crews.

“I wish I could put into words how much this has affected me,” Ramsay told Market Watch’s Kari Paul. “I blame myself 100% and wish I could go back and react differently. My life is traveling getting out there and going places. This has just devastated my world. If nothing happens with my story, my story is no good. I never want anyone to have to go through something like this again.”

According to the press account, the 49-year-old says she woke during her October 20 journey from Denver International Airport (DEN) to Providence T. F. Green International Airport (PVD) to find a fellow passenger was touching her and eventually groping her breast from the row behind her seat. After a flight attendant was alerted to the situation, Ramsay says she had every reason to believe the situation was being handled, but when the plane landed about 30 minutes later, she was surprised to discover there was no sign of police on the ground. It was only then that she learned authorities had not even been informed about the alleged in-flight incident.

Ramsay, who says she contacted federal investigators after landing, claims the airline has not reached out to her at all since the fateful flight. Frontier officials have declined to discuss the matter publicly other than to say the incident is “under investigation.”

It was reportedly only after she took her concerns directly to the captain that a representative from the airline was summoned to meet the plane. At that point, the distraught passenger was put in touch with Transportation Security Administration officers and eventually local police, but by then, her alleged attacker was already long-gone.

“The way the flight attendant handled this may have created more victims,” Ramsay explained. “Not only could the actual perpetrator be emboldened by the fact that he got off and do it again, but if the police arrest a person because he had the seat assigned behind me and it isn’t the right person, that creates another victim.”

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