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  "path": "/2026/06/06/assault-35-000-feet-disturbing-rise-sexual-misconduct-skies-28658337/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-05T23:01:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Lifestyle",
    "Travel",
    "Features",
    "In Focus",
    "Sexual harassment",
    "Sexual Violence",
    "Paris",
    "allegedly assaulted the woman while she was sleeping",
    "Metro Deals",
    "Get deal now",
    "reports of misconduct in the skies",
    "disruptive behaviour",
    "one unruly passenger incident",
    "who was sexually assaulted aboard a Qatar Airways flight",
    "Doha",
    "London",
    "Italian",
    "convicted of attempted rape",
    "Naples",
    "Scotland",
    "Nepal",
    "Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source"
  ],
  "textContent": "Evidence suggests reports of misconduct in the skies are increasing (Picture: Getty Images)\n\nThe lights had barely dimmed after meal service on a 14-hour flight from Santiago to Paris, when a piercing scream shattered the plane cabin’s silence.\n\nA young woman in the row beside me suddenly leapt from her seat, visibly shaken, before rushing towards the galley. Moments later, cabin crew began quietly questioning nearby passengers.\n\nI wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. One flight attendant later told me that a male passenger, believed to be in his late teens or early twenties, had allegedly assaulted the woman while she was sleeping.\n\nAnother passenger claimed she had heard he had attempted to kiss her and force her head into his lap.\n\nThe accused was moved to an isolated crew seat near the galley, while the woman was relocated elsewhere in the plane.\n\nCabin crew advised her that she could report the incident upon arrival in Paris, but the shaken young woman expressed concern about missing a connecting flight if she became involved in a police investigation.\n\n##  Best of Best of Metro Deals\n\nGet exclusive discounts with Metro Deals – save on getaways and spa days. Powered by Wowcher\n\n**Bannatyne Spa** : Spa day for two with treatments, lunch & prosecco — save up to 57% off.\n\n Get deal now\n\n**Mystery Escape** : Hotel stay with return flights from as low as £92pp — save on worldwide holiday packages.\n\nGet deal now\n\n**Beach Retreat (Lanzarote)** : 4* Lanzarote beach holiday with flights — save up to 58%.\n\nGet deal now\n\nAfter landing, passengers were informed that police would be meeting the aircraft and that passports would need to be shown before anyone disembarked.\n\nWhat happened next remains unknown.\n\nExperts say the confined nature of air travel creates unique vulnerabilities (Picture: Getty Images)\n\nThe incident, however, prompted a troubling question: just how common are sexual assaults on aircraft?\n\n## **A growing concern**\n\nWhile such occurences remain relatively rare compared with the billions of people who fly every year, evidence suggests reports of misconduct in the skies are increasing.\n\nThe FBI has investigated more than 170 cases involving passenger-on-passenger physical and sexual assaults in recent years, while the Federal Aviation Administration continues to record thousands of reports of disruptive behaviour annually.\n\nGlobally, the International Air Transport Association says there is now approximately one unruly passenger incident for every 395 flights.\n\nExperts believe the confined nature of air travel creates unique vulnerabilities. Passengers are often sleeping, fatigued, consuming alcohol and unable to easily remove themselves from uncomfortable situations.\n\nOne particularly high-profile case involved a British woman known publicly only as Kelly, who was sexually assaulted aboard a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to London Gatwick in 2023.\n\nMomade Jussab sexually assaulted a woman while she slept on board a flight from Qatar to Gatwick in September 2024 (Picture: Credit: Sussex Police)\n\nThe 24-year-old awoke to find the man seated beside her with his hands down her trousers. The passenger, 66-year-old Momade Jussab, was arrested upon landing and later sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault by penetration and two counts of sexual assault.\n\nThe case attracted further attention when Kelly was denied compensation under the UK’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme because the assault took place on a foreign-registered aircraft, highlighting what campaigners have described as a significant gap in the law.\n\nMeanwhile, earlier this year, Italian national Nicola Cristiano, 45, was convicted of attempted rape after targeting a woman travelling alone on an EasyJet flight from Naples to Edinburgh. Prosecutors said he deliberately moved seats to sit beside her before sexually assaulting her during the flight.\n\nNicola Cristiano was sentenced to six years in prison after he sexually assaulted a woman on board an EasyJet flight from Naples to Edinburgh in 2025 (Picture: Police Scotland/PA Wire)\n\nThe victim managed to alert cabin crew and Cristiano was arrested when the plane landed in Scotland. He was later convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh, in a case that again highlighted the vulnerabilities faced by passengers in the confined environment of an aircraft cabin.\n\n## **My own experience**\n\nOver more than two decades of extensive travel, only one other alarming incident stands out in my memory – and it happened to me. I was travelling from the UK to Nepal when I woke to find the male passenger seated beside me touching my leg.\n\nI remember feeling instantly repulsed. The man, who appeared to be in his 60s, had somehow placed his hand on my upper thigh. As soon as I stirred awake, he quickly withdrew it and acted as though nothing had happened.\n\nI have also received unwanted attention on a flight, which has impacted how I travel (Picture: Supplied)\n\nYet his uneasy, shifty demeanour left me in little doubt that he knew his behaviour was inappropriate. Horrified, I immediately alerted a member of the cabin crew, who quickly moved me to another seat.\n\nThe incident never escalated further, but it left a lasting impression of just how vulnerable passengers can feel in the confined environment of an aircraft cabin.\n\nWhen I later asked female friends about their own experiences, several described uncomfortable attention from male passengers, ranging from persistent staring and unwanted conversation, to repeated offers of drinks. In some cases, they said the inappropriate behaviour even came from airline staff.\n\nOne friend recalled being repeatedly given booze by two male crew members while travelling in her twenties. Looking back, she now feels uncomfortable about behaviour she brushed off at the time, and realises how inappropriate and unprofessional it was.\n\n## **Why might incidents be increasing?**\n\nCraig Bickers, founder and director of medical repatriation company SkyCare Repatriation, tells **Metro** that he believes several factors may be contributing to the apparent rise in incidents. ‘With more people travelling than ever before and increased awareness around reporting inappropriate behaviour, it’s possible more incidents are now being recognised and reported rather than ignored,’ he explains.\n\nAlcohol is considered one of the causes of unruly and dangerous behaviour on flights (Picture: Getty Images)\n\nCraig adds that the immediate priority for anyone experiencing inappropriate behaviour onboard should be personal safety. ‘If possible, they should discreetly alert cabin crew and request to be moved away from the individual involved,’ he says. ‘Airlines have safeguarding and incident procedures, and authorities may be notified ahead of arrival depending on the circumstances.’\n\nHe also stresses that victims should never feel pressured into making an immediate report. ‘Once a formal report begins, many decisions can quickly move out of the victim’s control. It’s important that individuals feel informed, supported and able to make choices at their own pace wherever possible.’\n\n## **The reality of trauma**\n\nSam Thompson, a safeguarding specialist and Sexual Safety Lead for the Royal College of Paramedics, says public perceptions often fail to reflect how victims respond in traumatic situations.\n\n‘One of the biggest misconceptions is that victims will always respond clearly and decisively in the moment,’ he tells **Metro**. ‘In reality, people often freeze, minimise what has happened, second-guess themselves, or focus primarily on getting safely to their destination.’\n\nPacked airplanes can make some people feel even more uncomfortable about reporting unwanted attention (Picture: Getty Images)\n\nAccording to Sam, aircrafts create particularly challenging environments because of restricted movement and the social pressure not to cause a scene.\n\nFor many victims, the fear extends beyond the incident itself. ‘People may worry about being disbelieved, blamed, publicly exposed, delayed in a foreign country, separated from travelling companions, or losing autonomy over decisions that directly affect them,’ he adds.\n\n‘There is often an assumption that reporting automatically feels empowering. In practice, many people experience the opposite initially – a rapid loss of privacy, predictability and control.’\n\nAfter my own uncomfortable experience in my twenties, I have become more conscious of who I am seated next to on flights.\n\nThese days, I make sure the armrest remains a clear boundary between my personal space and that of the passenger beside me.\n\nWhile such precautions may seem small, they reflect a reality many travellers – particularly women – know all too well: personal safety can never be taken entirely for granted.\n\nAs passenger numbers continue to rise, airlines need to ensure the skies remainsafe for everyone(Picture: Getty Images)\n\n## **An invisible crime**\n\nFor most passengers, flying remains one of the safest forms of travel. Yet incidents like the one I witnessed somewhere over the Atlantic serve as a reminder that crime does not stop at the aircraft door.\n\nThe young woman on that overnight flight faced a difficult decision familiar to many victims: whether to report what happened and potentially become entangled in an unfamiliar legal process, or continue her journey and leave the incident behind.\n\nWhatever choice she made, experts agree on one thing – the priority must remain the victim’s safety, wellbeing and ability to make informed decisions about what happens next.\n\nAs passenger numbers continue to rise, airlines and authorities face a growing challenge – ensuring that the skies remain not only safe, but safe for everyone.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "Assault at 35,000 feet: The disturbing rise of sexual misconduct in the skies"
}