AA Pilot Not Guilty of Assaulting Flight Attendants

Los Angeles, CAAn American Airlines pilot has been vindicated of sexual assault and harassment. Two former flight attendants did not convince the eight-person Los Angeles jury, which delivered the unanimous California labor verdict to U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald on September 25.

The former flight attendants Janette Beckman and Leeanne Hansen filed the civil assault and battery lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2020, and it was later removed to federal court. The pair accused longtime pilot Sigsbee John Nelson of battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, so much so that the “traumatic incident”—both claimed they were victims of assault but Beckman apparently only witnessed the assault—forced them both to take unpaid medical leave and eventually early retirement. They sought a total of $8.1 million in damages for emotional distress and lost profits, reported Law360.

Shortly after the alleged incident, one of the plaintiffs was forced to go on stress leave while the second continued to work before being forced to work with Nelson one week later. She also took stress leave fearing that her employer would not protect her, according to the lawsuit, which initially included American Airlines. Beckman and Hansen argued that American failed to protect them after the alleged assault. They filed a formal complaint with the airline and they were placed on unpaid leave until the end of an internal investigation that lasted almost six months. Nelson was placed on a paid leave of absence. After the investigation in which an internal investigator found Beckman and Hansen credible, the airline allowed Nelson to retire instead of face termination.

Beckman and Hansen claimed in their lawsuit that, during their absence, American knowingly allowed rumors to be spread about them. The accused American Airlines of sexual battery, assault, harassment, gender discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, as well as offences under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.  Judge Fitzgerald dismissed all claims against American Airlines in a summary judgment ruling, holding that the company properly launched a human resources probe and accepted Nelson's retirement after the flight attendants complained.

The Incident

Nelson was accused of making sexual comments to both plaintiffs on a flight from Los Angeles in 2019 and later at a hotel during in São Paulo, Brazil, where he allegedly grabbed Hansen in the elevator of the hotel and thrusting his genitalia into her backside. According to court documents, Nelson walked into the plane’s galley looking for alcohol. Beckman said she refused his request, concerned for the safety of passengers and crew members. When Nelson was refused “on-duty drinking” he started to sexually harass the Beckman, telling her that he knew she liked S&M (sadomasochism). “I know you like to be tied up,” he told her. Then Hansen appeared and he said to her, “Oh, you’re into ropes…Do you wanna come to my room and tie me up?” The plaintiffs further accused Nelson of grabbing Hansen by her hips, digging his nails into her hip bones and “repeatedly and violently” thrusting his penis into her buttocks.

Nelson’s attorney convinced the jury by asserting that the supposed elevator incident never happened. Nelson's supervisor, the flight's captain, was also in the elevator and has no recollection of any assault. Further, the attorney told the jurors that Beckman and Hansen fabricated the elevator story in a blatant money grab after Nelson made a single "snarky comment" on the flight to Sao Paulo. "They took an opportunity on the wave of the #MeToo movement and stopped working…Mr. Nelson did nothing to harm these two flight attendants,” he said, as reported by Law360.

The case is Janette Beckman et al. v. American Airlines Inc. et al., case number 2:23-cv-07410, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Sexual Assault Industry-Wide Issue

Back in 2018, an Alaska Airlines pilot claimed she was drugged and raped by her co-pilot during a layover, and that she believes that what happened to her is an industry-wide issue that is often "swept under the rug”. Betty Pina, an Alaska Airlines first officer and former military pilot, told ABC News this is an under-reported, not-dealt-with issue in our industry… It's not just our airline”.

In 2023, the FBI opened 96 cases linked to in-flight sexual assault that included passengers. The agency investigated only 27 in 2018. Between 2019 and 2023, the FBI experienced a 60 percent increase in cases.

According to Travel Post, federal prosecutors, the FBI and the Port of Seattle in 2023 joined forces to provide information to the public about what officials labeled a "disturbing increase of sexual assaults on aircraft.", which included an alleged sexual assaults on teenage passengers. The officials reported an alarming amount of predatory behavior as travel resumed post-pandemic.

The Association of Flight Attendants reported that a survey that included more than 3,500 flight attendants from 29 U.S. airlines found that:

• 68% of flight attendants experienced sexual harassment during their flying careers.
• 35% experienced verbal sexual harassment from passengers in the last year.
• Of those who experience verbal harassment, 68% faced it three or more times, and a third five or more times in the past year. 
• 7% of the flight attendants who experienced the abuse have reported sexual harassment to their employer.
• 68% of flight attendants say they have not noticed any employer efforts over the past year to address sexual harassment at work.