A 25-year-old United Airlines passenger said she was forced to sit next to a man who pleasured himself while staring at her during an early morning flight ahead of Labor Day weekend.
The passenger said she was also surprised to learn that, despite reporting the incident to flight staff, the airline did not inform law enforcement, and the man deplaned at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, as if nothing had happened.
The woman, whose name NBC News is withholding because she is a victim of an alleged sexual offense, said she was permitted to stand for part of the roughly one-hour regional flight from Rochester, New York, to Newark that took off at 6 a.m. Sept. 3.
A pediatric crisis therapist who lives in western New York, she said it was the first leg of her trip to visit friends for the weekend in Boston. When flight attendants began to prepare for landing, the woman told NBC News, she was told she had to return to her seat in spite of the sexual harassment she reported, because there were no other available seats.
“On multiple instances, I said I feel uncomfortable doing that,” the woman said.
She said a flight attendant told her she would only be sitting for three to five minutes, but the landing process took much longer, and her seat was near the back of the plane, so she spent additional time alongside the man before deplaning.
The woman described the man as roughly 35 to 40 years of age, wearing hiking pants and a T-shirt. He was “pretty normal looking” and “unassuming,” she said.
“I just got the sense had done it before … People don’t just do those things at 6 a.m.,” she said. The airline’s handling of the issue made the upsetting encounter worse, she added.
According to the passenger, she approached a United agent at the gate who was rude and curt. The woman told the agent that her seatmate was not stopped at the gate and that she was “concerned he’s on his next flight.”
“What am I supposed to do about it?” the agent allegedly told her. He said it was her responsibility to request a police response, she said.
Another United employee later told her that protocols weren’t followed and advised her to complain to the airline. She said she filed grievances with United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration. Later, she said, she also called the FBI.
In an emailed response to NBC News’ request for comment, United did not immediately provide details about the report or how it was handled. “We’re currently looking into this and don’t have anything additional to share right now,” a spokesperson said.
The FAA and the FBI also declined to comment.
“What am I supposed to do about it?” the agent allegedly told her.
“good morning passengers on flight 677 to New Jersey…we remind you wanking is rows 39-49 only.”
While I hate reading this stuff, I appreciate you posting it.
I can’t imagine having so little empathy for my fellow human beings. But I think most of us can’t, thankfully. Except road rage. We all road rage. But when driving, we see cars, not people. I can’t imagine being that nasty with an unconsenting other person. :(
I was so sad to see that no one stood up for this woman. No passengers, no flight attendants, no one.
They even made HER stand (when they should have duct taped the sexual predator in the galley or somewhere).
The very least someone could have done is pulled out a phone and recorded the guy. Offer to switch seats. Punch the gooner in the dick. Something.
United was also caught transporting either military parts or weapons for Israel on passenger flights
While that’s not great, it has nothing to do with this story.
In case people need more reasons to never fly United again.
Yea it does, United.
Specifically, United being shitty.Ok.
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That’s brutal. Real nightmare fuel from beginning to end.
She should’ve shown him pictures of diseased genitals. And a Kid Rock performance.
I feel a single photo could cover both bases there.
This is the kind of thing that I would loudly and proudly say, attention everyone the passenger next to me is wanking off so can we please give a round of applause for him joining the mile high club! Can a flight attendant please provide some complementary crackers so this man can enjoy his dick cheese with crackers? And record it and put it online. And of course look him in the eyes and say did daddy do that to you? So yeah people like me is why there’s no chat between teams on games like counter strike.
Pretty sure you go on Snapchat or YouTube live at that point
This happened in Thailand not so long ago. Some bloke jizzed on the Thai woman sitting next to him. He ended up in Thai jail in the end. She had some clear “evidence” obviously. https://nypost.com/2026/08/06/world-news/woman-claims-passenger-sexually-assaulted-her-mid-flight-while-she-her-daughter-were-asleep/
He left a chem trail
This should get you duct taped to the seat just like they do for passengers who are violent, refuse to sit in their seat, etc. Duct tape the bastard to his seat.
Is his license plate read JZZ WZZRD?
Well now we have the economy, economy plus and economy plus wank.
- united airlines in an attempt to fix this shit
I was sitting next to the motherfucker. I had to say something! Come on dawg, you’re hittin my elbows.
This is the kinda shit that makes me question all the smart-glasses hate, two-party-voice-recording-consent-laws, even up-skirt recording laws, all of it:
In what world does that man deserve the expecation of privacy, or even to know if she had recorded him somehow? The governments, Google, X, Meta, their peers, and the media, are all mishandling this shit on purpose to protect people like him and their enablers(the airline, in this case), and the public is gobbling their shit-sandwich narrative like its the most delicious and true thing ever.
I’m not saying we don’t need stalking and harrassment laws, or consent for image distribution, at least when all but one victim in-frame are either blurred out or just indiscernable/irrelavent. What I’m getting at is that 99.9999999% of those cases would be covered by proper enforcement of existing laws. Hell, I’m cool with using AI to scour all existing content for purposes of contacting people in it to see if they consented or NOT and provide them free legal-assistance, post-hoc with no statute of limitations.
On the other hand, the law-books are long-past cluttered to the point that the only things enforced are either en vogue among law-enforcement or brought to the media, and fuck the victims if they aren’t rich or photogenic-enough to force the issue.
She didn’t need to record him for United to take action.
Currently, those smart glasses are being used primarily by men recording women without their consent and uploading those videos online.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/07/the-life-changing-magic-of-wearing-smartglasses
I would like to emphasise the point touched upon in your article: how transformative this technology is already proving for blind people.
We are seeing significant numbers of our visually impaired staff and clients using Meta glasses in conjunction with their mobile phones to improve their ability to perform ordinary functions that most of us take for granted.
Wish the impetus was on how these glasses could help people instead of being abused to harass people.
I am mindful that the visually impaired population (more than two million people in the UK) will not be a large enough market for Meta and other companies currently developing such wearable devices. So let’s hope that they can resolve the concerns about privacy soon enough to ensure that this gamechanging technology continues to be developed.
From the same article. I share this opinion. And I wouldn’t hold my breath that Meta focuses on the benefits to the visually impaired population over pandering to people who want to use them to invade other’s privacy.
If she had recorded him, United would have taken immediate action, or at least the first person to take here seriously probably would have been someone in-person, when she was still in-crisis and most in-need of well-warranted validation.
You’re blinded by your love of smart glasses here.
Even if recording him would have forced the flight attendants to take action, she doesn’t need smart glasses to do that. She could have used her phone.
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This is the kinda shit that makes me question all the smart-glasses hate, two-party-voice-recording-consent-laws, even up-skirt recording laws, all of it
I’m simply reacting to your assertion that smart glasses would have fixed this situation for this woman.
You don’t need to guilt trip me about Aaron fucking Schwartz to make your point.
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You don’t have to reply to my comments mid-edit* either
You could always make sure your replies are ready before you hit ‘Reply’.
You need a chill break dude
Reading is quicker than composition, sure, but you haven’t even taken a niblble, let-alone digested a crum of it beyond the toddler’s “eww! broccoli! so gross!”-stage.
I’m not going to apologize for being quick witted.
I’m sure she had a phone. Also I’m sure she was scared and clearly she was on her own, probably didn’t want to escalate.
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