"‘This was 30 minutes of hell for this young lady': Unaccompanied minor groped on flight"
This article for the Washington Post by Michael Miller details a horror story regarding a young girl on a plane flying home alone and a man who sexually abused her.
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During the 30-minute time period, Chad Cameron Camp made several "passes" at the girl while she was trapped in the window seat.
According to the lawyer representing the family, Brent Goodfellow, there were several warning signs that flight attendants should have picked up on, and acting upon those early would have shortened or possibly prevented the traumatizing experience.
At first, Camp declined to move to an open row or even an isle seat which would allow the middle open between the two as well as said several curse words during the flight beginning as soon as he sat down.
Goodfellow explains how Camp made several gestures to physically touch the victim from touching his elbow to her arm, to throwing his headphones in her lap and finally placing his hand on the girl's leg in multiple places.
The total of times Camp inappropriately touched her was a staggering 15 on that flight before a flight attendant serving drinks finally noticed his hand on the girl's lap, and the victim crying.
After denying the accusation, the flight attendant told him to move and had to make him go to the back of the plane, then hurried the girl to the front.
Camp was detained by officials as soon as he exited the plane and taken to Multnomah County jail.
American Airlines charges $150 each way for unaccompanied minors from ages four to 14, which the victim's father paid, but for 30 minutes this 13-year-old was inappropriately touched. Until 2014, the years the fee applied to were ages four to 11. The service charge's justification is to ensure the minor stays safe and gets easily to the person(s) they are meeting at their destination.
Miller's article references another time of American Airlines' negligence from 2015 where a very similar situation happened with a minor roughly the same age. In this case, the man was acquitted in federal court, and the lawsuit against him and American Airlines is still unresolved.
Yet overall, very few allegations regarding sexual assault on flights are made.
Although one of the immediate thoughts is to not allow adult males to sit next to minors, that thinking has lead to multiple false accusations towards men. One incident was reported by the ex-mayor of London who had been asked to move away from children on a flight, who turned out to be his own.
Goodfellow says that there are nondiscriminatory ways to ensure that unaccompanied minors stay safe that are easy for flight attendants and airlines to abide by. An important note to adults is to have minors sit where they are easily seen by flight attendants.
This heartbreaking story could have been prevented, and there are ways to protect unaccompanied minors that do not involve discriminatory measures. This sharing of the story was not designed to create an enemy out of all adult males, but rather, to raise awareness that sexual assault crimes are a problem in the U.S.
If you see something like this happening to anyone, take action to stop it immediately. It is extremely unfair that now a young girl is afraid of flying on planes especially since it could have been avoided.
