Chloe King woke up on a transatlantic American Airlines flight to Paris just before the plane landed, to have the flight attendant tell her that a man had been masturbating right next to her.
King, 30, wrote in a Medium post that she had fallen asleep before the man started masturbating. The woman on the other side of him had been awake; she requested to be moved and the flight attendants did so. But they left King asleep in her window seat — and when she woke up and asked to be moved, they didn't accommodate her request. The flight attendant also told her that the airline had notified the French police.
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"What they didn’t do was wake me up and move me to a safe place," King wrote in her post. "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. I was shaking and crying and trying not to get sick."
When the plane landed in Paris, she went to the American Airlines desk in the airport to report what had happened, but writes that she "was met with blank stares." She contacted the American Airlines legal team and got no response for weeks, until she finally received an email apologizing for "disappointing service."
The Daily Mail reports that American Airlines said in a statement: "American always strives to maintain a safe and comfortable travel experience for all of our customers. 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."
However, King is horrified at the way American Airlines treated her — and we would be, too.
"I’ll never know what exactly happened on that flight, but I do know I’ll never feel completely safe flying again. Add an American Airlines airplane to the long list of places where, as a woman, I will feel anxious and vulnerable," King wrote in her post.
"Disgustingly, I know this is not breaking news: sexual assault is repeatedly forgiven and swept aside in our society. As women, we can’t accept this," she continued. "American Airlines, you knew what happened was criminal activity — therefore you had the offender arrested — yet you did nothing to stop the man’s actions or protect my safety in a horrifying situation."
She ended her post by encouraging travelers to choose another airline.