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The high prevalence of sexual harassment in the airline industry is extra frightening because cabin crews are essentially stuck in the air with their harassers for multiple hours at a time.
What may be the most unnerving part is that the harassers are more often high ranking crew members than passengers. A survey from UFO cabin crew union working in the German airline industry stated that about half experienced harassment at work and almost 50% of those stated that they were harassed by higher ranking crew. Only a quarter of the flight attendants said that the passengers were the harassers.
The online survey further stated that half of the flight attendants chose not to report their harassment complaints fearing for their careers.
A survey by the United States Association of Flight Attendants showed that almost 70% of flight attendants surveyed had been sexually harassed or assaulted on the job. Flight crews aren’t the only ones experiencing sexual harassment during flights. In the U.S., there is no exact data on how often sexual assaults occur in the air. The same survey revealed that 20% of flight attendants reported that they had received assault reports from their passengers, but were not trained on how to handle it.
These flight attendants did not know how to intervene to stop the harassment or assault and they did not know how to report it so no law enforcement could take any action once the flight landed.
Passengers and cabin crew increasingly need to take matters into their own hands and file sexual harassment and sexual assault lawsuits. Although it’s important to speak to your state representative about changing the laws to regulate the airline industry, it’s not enough to wait for regulations to be created.
For more information about sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations in the airline industry, send us a message.
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