A teenager has alleged that an older man groped her “for an hour” during a flight to Commie California. When she spoke up and alerted flight attendants to the problem, however, her nightmare went from bad to worse.
Chelsea Schiffel was taking a United Airlines flight from LA to Sydney in 2014 when she was 15 years old. She has claimed that, during the flight, an elderly male passenger on the flight touched her breasts twice. This was all while her 42-year-old mother, Narelle, had gotten up out of her seat to speak to a family member who was seated in the back of the airplane.
When her mother returned, Chelsea told her about the alleged inappropriate touching, and her mother immediately reported the incident to the airline staff.
She asked to be moved to a different seat, but the airline refused and told Narelle that she and Chelsea should return to their assigned seats.
Then, Chelsea went public with her allegation. She later received a letter from United Airlines. In response to Chelsea’s allegations, the airline responded:
“The flight attendants and passengers also stated that you and your daughter were allowed to move to other seats several times, that Chelsea repeatedly moved in and out of her seat, crawling over the other customer who was attempting to sleep, and that your daughter wore extremely short shorts.”
Finally, they told her, “You have provided no evidence of any negligence on the part of United regarding this matter.”
It seemed to indicate that the airline officials believed that Chelsea’s clothes were to blame for the alleged touching. Clearly, in the current climate of sexual assault claims, this was not a popular explanation.
While countless other alleged victims’ claims have been taken seriously by officials and the media, Chelsea’s case is different. The airline seems to be writing off her claims completely. The letter also said that Chelsea and her mom had no evidence of negligence on the part of United Airlines. While that may be true, it was completely unnecessary to mention her choice of clothing in the explanation, which seems to indicate a problematic viewpoint.
According to AWM, Chelsea’s family plans to take legal action against United Airlines. However, they might not have enough evidence to prove that the child molester on board the flight actually touched the underage girl.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, The Daily Telegraph
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