FBI: Off-Duty Pilot Groped Girl, 14, On Delta Flight
 

An off-duty pilot traveling on a Delta Air Lines flight Saturday allegedly groped the buttocks of a sleeping 14-year-old girl who was seated next to him and flying as an unaccompanied minor, The Smoking Gun has learned.

Michael James Pascal, 45, was named yesterday in a felony complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pascal, who works as a Delta Connection pilot, was charged with abusive sexual contact on an aircraft.

According to FBI Agent Cameron Smilie, Pascal and the teenage victim were traveling on Delta Flight #855, which departed Detroit at 5:45 PM Saturday and arrived in Salt Lake City about three hours later.

The teenager said she later fell asleep in a seated position “with her legs pulled close to her chest and her feet on her seat.” When she awoke, the girl recalled, she noticed Pascal’s hand “under the left cheek of her buttocks.” The hand, she noted, was “far enough under her buttocks that his fingers were touching her inner thigh.”

Agent Smilie reported that the girl described feeling Pascal’s hand as “being palm up and feeling him gripping her buttocks but not moving.” The armrest between her and Pascal “was in the upright position” and some of Pascal’s body weight was on her.

Pascal’s eyes were open and he “was clearly awake,” the teenager told investigators.

Full story:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...ssenger-675432

If this is true this OO pilot is very in serious trouble.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/delta-pilot-butt-grab

No disrespect intended to SkyWest, but wouldn't that make him an OO Pilot?

Who knew there was such a charge?

I am not sure why the location changes the nature of the offense, whether in the air, or on the ground, or in a boat...

Jurisdiction.

I believe dEagleS was referring to the double standard we often seem to apply to matters of jurisprudence, often fueled by how the media enjoys taking something and running with it, not the basis for FBI involvement.

In other words, even though one is fifteen times more likely to get raped in the United States, apparently it only matters when it occurs in India. (sarcasm)

Put a blue uniform on them and they can they get away with doing it on a daily basis in airports across the US.

Probably not the "clearly awake" part, though.

Didn't this guy have a background check? Isn't he permitted access to the "sterile" area just by waving his badge? How could this have happened??

This

He says he was asleep. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn't.

Similar things have happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2pu0m9iTo4

Federal charge. States can't charge someone for a crime aboard an aircraft.

Yes, he will faces child molesting charge. He will go to prison for years. He will never work for airlines again.

What a shame!!! He shouldn't never touch with the young girl. He have to stay away from there.

He probably did, but background checks usually focus on past criminal activity and the potential security risk of non-sexual natures. As does frequently happen, a sexual assault can be impossible to predict if the applicant's record is clean. I've never heard of pilots being required to perform psychological tests to screen pilots with boundary issues. Maybe they'll start some day.

This does cast doubt on the wisdom of some carrier's policies to seat their own employees next to UMs. It becomes a liability issue even if the employee is no more likely than a random stranger to be a predator.

Yeah, this is my industry, I got it. I just didn't think they would be so specific.

If I am ever charged with a crime, I hope you don't get selected for the jury.