Woman alleges man 'stared and masturbated' on United flight, and crew took no action

A United Airlines passenger has claimed that a man seated next to her on a flight to New Jersey masturbated. When she reached out to the crew to do something about it, her concerns were ignored, and she was asked to sit back down. According to a report by NBC News, the incident happened on a morning flight from Rochester, New York, to Newark on September 3. She alleged that the man kept staring at her and started touching himself.

Because of the creepy incident, the woman was forced to remain standing for much of the flight. But the crew asked her to sit next to the man at the time of landing. "On multiple instances, I said I feel uncomfortable doing that," the unnamed woman told NBC. The crew did not pay heed to her requests, stating that there were no other empty seats and she would only have to sit there for a few more minutes during the landing.

The woman said the United crew should have reported the man to law enforcement and tried to stop him from de-boarding. However, they did none of that, making things worse. When she approached an agent at the airport about the incident, he brushed her off, saying, “What am I supposed to do about it?”

Complaint filed with FAA and FBI

She then filed an official complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration, the FBI, and United Airlines. The woman says the man may have done the same thing in the past. “I just got the sense [he] had done it before … People don’t just do those things at 6 am,” she said.

A United spokesperson said in a statement, "The safety of our customers and colleagues is our top priority. We take these matters seriously and are looking into what happened. We have been in contact with the customer and apologised for her experience." Both FAA and FBI have yet to comment on the matter.