Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
- Sep 4, 2018

Molested In Flight

It was a 16 hour flight with transfers a few years ago, from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom back to the United States, Bloomington, Illinois (BMI), and I slept. While I slept in flight I was molested by the greasy pig-man of indeterminate ethnicity who occupied the aisle seat next to my window seat. I know this because I woke abruptly to find myself sexually stimulated and him very agitated, leering wickedly at me. He had been petting my privates in public. Gross. Then he followed me around the luggage pickup area trying to build up his nerve to interact with me. This was sickening. But I avoided him and swiftly left the airport. This was excessively exhausting.

This episode was disturbing but it is also puzzling as I know that I would not sleep on the short last leg of a flight home, especially sitting next to a strange, dark man, so why was I sleeping? I wonder if he drugged me? I will never know as I never spoke to him, never heard him speak, and I have no idea who he might have been, reaching over from his aisle seat to molest me as I slept against the airplane window.

I used to love flying, now I dread flying. But I will fly again, and I will demand to be assigned a seat next to a woman. The saddest part of this is that it is happening to other women too, apparently frequently. I had repressed what happened to me, until I read about what happened to these young women. They are young, will they have the fortitude to fly again?

Headline: “Two men charged with sexual assault aboard planes headed to Sea-Tac; authorities urge victims to come forward." “Two men have been charged with the sexual assault of young women passengers in separate incidents aboard aircraft coming into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, law-enforcement officials said Thursday. One was arrested Wednesday in Alaska and the second early Thursday morning in Los Angeles.”

Source: The Seattle Times, August 30, 2018 at 9:13 pm Updated August 31, 2018 at 4:50 am

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/two-men-charged-with-sexual-assault-aboard-planes-headed-to-sea-tac-authorities-urge-victims-to-come-forward/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning+Brief+8-31-18_8_31_2018&utm_term=Former%20Subscriber