In June, FBI agents arrested Chad Camp, a 26-year-old Oregon man, after a flight attendant saw him groping a 13-year-old girl sitting next to him on an American Airlines flight.
And a month earlier, a woman on her first international flight from New Jersey to Germany accused the man seated next to her of grabbing her breast as she slept on a United Airlines flight.
On Monday, 23 Democratic senators, including Patty Murray of Washington state and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, said the federal government needs to do a better job of stopping sexual assault on airplanes.
Twenty-three senators say the Federal Aviation Administration has no explicit guidelines for how airlines should handle sexual assault on planes.
Citing the two cases involving American and United airlines, the senators complained that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently has no explicit guidelines for how airline employees should handle sexual assault.
“We find this troubling and unacceptable,” the senators said in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
Among other things, the senators said the FAA and Department of Justice should collect data to determine the prevalence of sexual assault and create standards and support for airline personnel to help them deal with the issue.
Both of California’s senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, signed the letter, along with Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
Rob Hotakainen: 202-383-6154, @HotakainenRob