A woman is suing Delta Air Lines, claiming an off-duty employee kissed and groped her after being overserved alcohol by flight attendants

22.11.2023 - 03:35 / insider.com / Delta

A woman is suing Delta Air Lines, alleging that an off-duty employee kissed and groped her after being overserved alcohol by flight attendants.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in the US District Court of Minnesotaand viewed by Business Insider, states that the woman, Alison Petri, was on a flight from Las Vegas to Minneapolis on November 17, 2022, when the alleged incident occurred.

In a statement to BI on Tuesday, a Delta Air Lines spokesperson said, "The alleged assailant at the time was an employee of a Delta subsidiary but not directly employed by Delta." The spokesperson did not respond when asked what subsidiary the employee, identified in the lawsuit as Abigail Louise Trebnick-Emerson, worked for.

"While we don't have any specific comment on this pending litigation, Delta does not tolerate inappropriate or unlawful behavior," the airline's statement continued. "Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our people."

According to the suit, Trebnick-Emerson boarded the flight with a "'crew' bag, indicating that she was a flight crew member," the lawsuit states. She was seated in the middle of a three-seat row, with the plaintiff in the aisle and an unnamed man in the window seat, per the suit.

The lawsuit alleges that after she was served three cans of wine, Trebnick-Emerson kissed Petri on the mouth, to which Petri did not consent. After two more cans of wine, the defendant kissed Petri on the cheek "multiple times," the lawsuit states. Once the plane landed and Petri stood to gather her luggage, the employee "rubbed [Petri]'s buttocks," the suit continues.

"The concept of being touched inappropriately on an airplane is really scary because it's not like other locations where you might be able to leave," Jeffrey Storms, Petri's lawyer, told Business Insider on Tuesday. "You're stuck there."

According to the lawsuit, Petri walked to the back of the plane after being kissed to inform a flight attendant — but the flight attendant continued serving the employee.

The lawsuit claims Petri also reported the incident to gate agents and Delta Airport Customer Service and asked them to inform law enforcement. Trebnick-Emerson was initially charged with criminal sexual conduct in the fifth degree and disorderly conduct, per the suit.

A prosecutor dismissed the criminal sexual conduct charge, but Trebnick-Emerson was convicted of disorderly conduct over the summer, local Minnesota news outlet KMSP reported, and sentenced to one year of unsupervised monitoring. It's unclear what month Trebnick-Emerson was convicted and sentenced.

The lawsuit also claimed flight attendants repeatedly contacted Trebnick-Emerson to warn her about the report and included screenshots of what appear to be Facebook