FBI reports surge in men groping teenage girls, women on planes

Reports of men groping teenage girls and young women sitting next to them on airplanes are rising, federal numbers show.

So far this year, the FBI has investigated 62 cases of airborne sexual misconduct as of Aug. 3, passing pre-pandemic counts.

According to national figures shared with The Washington Times, the FBI investigated 27 sexual misconduct cases aboard aircraft in 2018 and 65 in 2019.

After that tally fell to 34 incidents in 2020 amid COVID-19 flight restrictions, it shot up to 81 in 2021 and 90 last year as travelers returned to the skies.

“When comparing 2019 to 2021, we have seen a 25% increase in investigations, even as the rate of passengers has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels,” an FBI spokeswoman said in an email.

The FBI said most of the unwanted groping occurred while victims slumbered, with 67% involving alcohol or drugs and 20% involving underage targets.

While the number of reported incidents represents only a tiny fraction of the number of commercial flights taken annually in the U.S., prosecutors call the upward trend alarming.

On Aug. 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington announced the separate prosecutions of four men who flew into Seattle this year:

— North Carolina resident Jack Roberson was arrested after he landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on a July 16 Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta. A 15-year-old girl said Mr. Roberson, 69, pretended to fall asleep and moved his hand under her skirt and up her thigh after drinking two double vodka tonics.

— James Benecke, a 41-year-old Army chief warrant officer stationed in Alaska, faces two counts of abusive sexual contact during separate Alaska Airlines flights. He is accused of groping a 16-year-old girl on an April 12 flight from Anchorage and an 18-year-old woman on a June 12 flight from Dallas, prompting the latter and her boyfriend to report him to flight attendants.

— Airline mechanic Duane Brick faces a Sept. 11 trial for reportedly placing an adult woman’s hand on his crotch and reaching under her shirt after she took sleeping pills and appeared to fall asleep during a March flight from Arizona on his employer’s plane.

— During a flight from Atlanta, Munir Walji allegedly inappropriately touched a 15-year-old girl.

Under the law, abusive sexual contact on an aircraft is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to Emily Langlie, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, the four cases are the first her office has prosecuted since 2018. That year, it filed charges in two cases, including one that resulted in a 2020 conviction and a two-year prison sentence.

“As to why we are seeing more cases now, a number of factors could be at issue,” Ms. Langlie told The Times. “[They] include more people flying following the pandemic shutdowns, and more people are aware and report instances due to the Be Air Aware campaign launched by the FBI.”

She added in an email that while her office is still investigating other incidents, “how many will result in charges will depend on the evidence available to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The surge in sexual assaults comes as the nation grapples with a pandemic-era mental health crisis and an increase in “unruly passengers” disrupting flights after COVID flight restrictions eased in 2021.

Sexual predators have grown bolder in public over the past 5-10 years, said Vince Callahan, a Lakeland, Florida-based psychologist who has treated perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse for 37 years.

“It’s almost like the conscience of America has gone away,” Mr. Callahan told The Times. “Video games and screen time have taken things we used to think were bad and made them seem acceptable. We have this mental idea that ‘whatever I want to do is OK,’ without regard to other people.”

Young women asleep on airplanes offer an easy target for sexual predators who have lowered their inhibitions with alcohol, he added.

“If I’m a predator with a porn addiction and I get two or three drinks in me on a flight, it’s not a big stretch for me to reach over and do something,” Mr. Callahan said. “Even one touch is enough to ruin someone’s life and cause trauma.”

The Federal Aviation Administration tracks incidents involving “unruly passengers” separately from the sexual cases the FBI investigates. That includes any violent or threatening behaviors that disrupt flights.

The FAA website notes a “rapid growth” in airlines reporting such incidents since 2021.

According to the FAA, reports of unruly passengers shot up from 1,009 in 2019 to 5,973 in 2021 as air travel rebounded from pandemic restrictions. The number dropped to 2,455 last year and on Aug. 20 hit 1,281 so far for this year.

In an email to the Times, an FAA spokesperson said the agency has referred 270 unruly passenger cases to the FBI for criminal investigation under a partnership that started in 2021. That includes 39 complaints so far this year.

The responsibility for detaining passengers accused of unruly behavior or sexual misconduct varies depending on the situation, according to officials.

In Mr. Benecke’s case, the FBI said flight attendants moved him to another seat and federal investigators interviewed the Army officer after he landed in Seattle in June. Federal officials arrested him a month later at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.