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According to research by federal prosecutors in Boston, sexual assault on airplanes is much more common than realized.
In court papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. McNeil, the most common type of sexual assault on airplanes is touching women sleeping on flights by men seated next to them. McNeil reviewed FBI and airline statistics as part of a case against an Arizona man facing trial.
Papers in the government’s case against the health-care executive charged with digitally raping a sleeping woman during a midday flight in March 2002 shows Delta Airlines logged 30 incidents of sexual assault in the skies in one year.
Of all crimes on airplanes investigated by the FBI in 2003, federal prosecutors said 12.5 percent involved allegations of sexual assaults. The number of sexual assaults on airplanes could be significantly higher in reality when considering the estimated number of reported cases is believed to represent just a percentage of actual events.
McNeil believes the reported cases, as well as statistics gathered by the FBI and Delta, indicates airplane sexual assaults are more problematic than known.