More than a year after a physician admitted to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl aboard a United flight from Seattle to Newark, a new lawsuit accuses the airline of failing to protect the teen.
Dr. Vijaykumar Krishnappa, 29, was sentenced this month to 90 days in a federal prison in New Jersey.
A complaint filed last week in Washington state’s King County Superior Court claims that United failed to act when the victim called for help — even letting the 29-year-old pervy doctor walk off the flight, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
“The conduct of United in this case is unconscionable from start to finish,” said attorney Samuel Daheim, who represents the victim and her mother.
The girl boarded the plane on July 23, 2017, for her first flight alone to attend a young women’s leadership conference at Princeton University, according to the suit.
She expected to sleep throughout the flight toward the back of the aircraft, but the passenger next to her — later identified as a physician from India working in the US — began touching her knee.
The girl thought he was asleep and didn’t think he was acting intentionally in the darkened cabin, court documents say, but the sicko then groped her upper thigh and touched her private parts over her leggings.
She felt “trapped and afraid” and thought the man might do something worse if she drew attention — but when he slid his hand under the waistband of her pants, she confronted him and called a flight attendant.
But the crew member did nothing to address the situation other than telling the creep, “Not cool, dude,” according to the lawsuit. The attendant also moved the girl a few rows ahead, where Krishnappa could still see her.
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The crew allegedly did nothing to investigate the incident and only gave the girl some peanuts as she cried hysterically, the suit alleges.
United violated federal law by failing to report the incident to authorities after Krishnappa walked off the flight, said Daheim.
The distraught girl called her mom, who booked a flight to join her daughter and called police, according to court records. Krishnappa was collared the next day.
As a result of the ordeal, the girl was unable to participate in the prestigious conference and has suffered social isolation since the incident, the complaint said.
In a statement, United said that “the safety and well-being of our customers is our top priority. Our customer was immediately moved to a different seat when the flight attendant was made aware of the issue. We fully cooperated with law enforcement’s investigation and the perpetrator has been permanently banned from flying United.”
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