Troubling Increase in Sexual Assaults on Airplanes
- 10 years ago
Airplane passengers are again being asked by the FBI to be on the lookout for criminal activity.
Airplane passengers are again being asked by the FBI to be on the lookout for criminal activity.
This time the agency is urging people to be watchful for signs of in-flight sexual assaults.
Reportedly, there’s been a surge in incidents as of late, and they’ve proven difficult to investigate.
Carlos Vasquez, flying from Houston to Dulles, charged with assaulting a 15-year-old. The court records say Vasquez was rubbing her
leg and thigh up her shorts, touching her underwear. The girl, court records say, pretended to be asleep.
Avoiding confrontation by feigning a nap was also the tactic employed by a woman on a separate flight who was inappropriately touched by the stranger seated beside her.
Thankfully in both of those attacks the perpetrators were apprehended and charged, but according to one agent, that is too seldom the case.
He said, “Victims are so shocked they’re being assaulted, it takes them awhile to process it.”
As a result, they often don’t alert flight attendants until the plane has landed and emptied.
By that time, the assailants and any potential witnesses are typically long gone and difficult to apprehend.
Authorities say they have no explanations as to why there has been a spike in sexual assaults.
Airplane passengers are again being asked by the FBI to be on the lookout for criminal activity.
This time the agency is urging people to be watchful for signs of in-flight sexual assaults.
Reportedly, there’s been a surge in incidents as of late, and they’ve proven difficult to investigate.
Carlos Vasquez, flying from Houston to Dulles, charged with assaulting a 15-year-old. The court records say Vasquez was rubbing her
leg and thigh up her shorts, touching her underwear. The girl, court records say, pretended to be asleep.
Avoiding confrontation by feigning a nap was also the tactic employed by a woman on a separate flight who was inappropriately touched by the stranger seated beside her.
Thankfully in both of those attacks the perpetrators were apprehended and charged, but according to one agent, that is too seldom the case.
He said, “Victims are so shocked they’re being assaulted, it takes them awhile to process it.”
As a result, they often don’t alert flight attendants until the plane has landed and emptied.
By that time, the assailants and any potential witnesses are typically long gone and difficult to apprehend.
Authorities say they have no explanations as to why there has been a spike in sexual assaults.