American Airlines’ cabin crew did not allow the passenger to move (Picture: Getty)

A passenger claims American Airline staff saw a man masturbating beside her when she slept and failed to wake her up and moved her to safety.

Chloe King was on a flight to Paris when the man in the seat next to her started touching himself inappropriately as she slept.

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Another woman in the row caught sight of the man’s sexual crime, informed cabin crew and requested to move seats, but Ms King was left next to him.

Upon waking, Ms King was beckoned to the rear of the plane by American Airlines staff who told her about the incident and informed her the French Police had been notified and them man was likely to be arrested upon landing in the capital.




Understandably, Ms King was shaken up and wanted to move away from the man.

The man was arrested upon arrival at Paris (Picture: Rex)

She said: ‘What they didn’t do was wake me up and move me to a safe place. What they didn’t do was accommodate my request — after informing me of the assault — to sit anywhere else on the plane for landing.

‘Instead, they made me climb back over the sex offender, trapped between him and the window for the rest of the flight.

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‘I was shaking and crying and trying not to get sick.’

As she’d been asleep, Ms King doesn’t know exactly what happened but she says: ‘I do know I’ll never feel completely safe flying again.

‘Disgustingly, I know this is not breaking news: sexual assault is repeatedly forgiven and swept aside in our society. As women, we can’t accept this.

‘American Airlines, you knew what happened was criminal activity, you had the offender arrested, yet you did nothing to stop the man’s actions or protect my safety in a horrifying situation.

‘You chose to treat the man committing the crime with far more respect than the unconscious woman sitting beside him. As humans, we deserve more than that.’

American Airlines statement When we reached out to an American Airlines representative, they told Metro.co.uk: ‘American always strives to maintain a safe and comfortable travel experience for all of our customers. ‘We are reviewing how we handled the situation on this flight, and have reached out directly to Ms. King. During the flight, our crew requested that French law enforcement meet the aircraft in Paris. ‘Upon arrival, French officials interviewed the male passenger regarding the allegations.’

Metro.co.uk also contacted Ms King. To read her full account of the incident, see her Medium post here.