Man Allegedly Assaults Female Passenger on Frontier Airlines Flight and Urinates on Seat–FBI Offers Advice for Travelers
Warning: Graphic image below.
Since aggressive unruly behavior by passengers and sexual assaults are regular occurrences now on flights, I wanted to share this story and offer advice on what to do if faced with this situation.
On May 17th, a 27-year old woman was on her way to Charleston, South Carolina to celebrate her sister’s bachelorette party and although the trip is one she’ll never forget, she wishes she could. She was traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 864 when a someone screamed out, “If he touches me again, I’ll f**king kill him.”
At this point, the self-employed woman, who asked not to be named for security reasons, realized a female passenger on the plane had been allegedly assaulted.
“The flight attendants came and moved him to the back of the plane where I was sitting and left him unattended. The stewardess gave him a bottle of water and then left. I saw her on her phone,” she told The Voluntourist.
“I looked at him to see if he has any remorse and he didn’t. Shortly after moving seats, he started to unbuckle his seat belt and I knew he was about to do something so I grabbed my phone.”
She was right.
“He started peeing on the seat in front of him. I started screaming, ‘Oh my God he’s f**king peeing.’ One of the stewardesses, instead of telling the guy to zip up his pants, she told me to calm down and stop cursing. It was insanely insulting.”
Although she was moved to a different seat, she didn’t feel like the crew handled the misconduct appropriately.
“The girl who had been touched while she was sleeping by this guy was given a card that had a phone number to call to complain about the incident and it was inaccurate information. I was given the same one. The number was wrong and the website address doesn’t exist. You couldn’t get in touch with anyone.”
Determined to talk to a Frontier Airline’s representative, the witness persisted.
“When I did get through to someone in customer service by pretending to book another flight, I was told I would be taken care of. He said he would book me a nice seat for my flights back home, but when I got to the airport, I was in the back a middle seat on both of my flights. It’s the worst seat you could get.”
The Voluntourist reached out to Frontier Airlines for a comment and this was their response.
“The safety and security of our passengers is our top priority at Frontier. We have been made aware of this situation and are working with the appropriate authorities.”
She asked Frontier to reimburse her for the $500 flight to Charleston, but instead her $45 baggage fees were comped was she only offered a $200 travel voucher.
“I was not treated well and the customer service person I spoke to was rude. That’s why I decided to tell this story. I felt Frontier didn’t think a woman could or would do anything about it. And I’m always disgusted by sexual assault and feel women need to be protected during these situations,” she told us.
She continued, “According to the girls that were sitting next to him, the flight attendant gave him two double shots of vodka. He was mumbling when he came back to the seat near me and seemed intoxicated. He was still trying to touch women as they walked by to go to the bathroom. Nearby passengers were trying to control the situation more than the crew. It was unbelievable.”
The man was arrested when the plane landed in Charleston and police reports were filed by the parties involved.
According to the FBI, a criminal complaint, which The Voluntourist has obtained, was also filed and the suspect, Michael Allen Haag, was charged with several federal offenses.
Air rage is getting uglier and headline grabbing incidents are going viral on social media on a regular basis now. So what should you do if you’re on a flight with an unruly passenger?
The FBI’s Special Agent David Gates gives this advice.
Trust your gut. Offenders will often test their victims, sometimes pretending to brush against them to see how they react or if they wake up. “Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt,” Gates said. If such behavior occurs, reprimand the person immediately, and consider asking to be moved to another seat.
Recognize that mixing alcohol with sleeping pills or other medication on an overnight flight increases your risk. “Don’t knock yourself out with alcohol or drugs,” Gates said.
If your seatmate is a stranger, no matter how polite he or she may seem, keep the armrest between you down.
If you are arranging for a child to fly unaccompanied, try to reserve an aisle seat so flight attendants can keep a closer watch on them.
If an incident happens, report it immediately to the flight crew and ask that they record the attacker’s identity and report the incident. “Flight attendants and captains represent authority on the plane,” Gates said. “We don’t want them to be police officers, but they can alert law enforcement, and they can sometimes deal with the problem in the air.” The flight crew can also put the offender on notice, which might prevent further problems.
In addition, Taylor Garland of the Association of Flight Attendants offered these tips to Smarter Travel.
1. Alert a flight attendant immediately. If you are in a window seat and can’t get around the perpetrator, use your call button to notify a crew member.
2. Move seats if possible
3. Make sure the flight attendants let the pilot know what’s happening.
“Procedures would also call for reporting the incident to the flight deck and the airline, at a minimum,” Garland says. Reporting the crime to the pilot is how law enforcement will be notified and able to meet you at the gate for assistance, she told Smarter Travel.
“There is not a direct reporting process,” Garland added. “The flight attendants report to the flight deck, who reports to ground personnel for the airline, who in return would report to local law enforcement or the FBI. Unless there has been some other disruption/interference with the flight crew, the victim must say they want to file charges.”
4. Contact the airlines and advise them of the incident.
I would add if you’re comfortable doing so, tell the perpetrator to stop his or her behavior and make everyone around aware of their actions. You want as many witnesses as possible. And I would get out your phone, like this passenger did, and record as much as the situation as possible for evidence.