A first-class perv on an American Airlines plane masturbated for an hour next to a stunned fashion entrepreneur on a flight from NYC to Milan — but a flight attendant dismissed his revolting behavior, saying, “Men just do stuff like that,” according to a lawsuit.
Neel Elsherif, the CEO of three different companies, including luxury vegan leather brand Mela, said she was terrified to go to sleep during the May 27 trip out of JFK Airport, fearing her seatmate would assault her.
The man, identified in court papers only as John Doe, chugged multiple glasses of champagne before Elsherif, 37, noticed him grabbing his groin and rubbing his genitals over his pants, she said in the legal filing.
After the cabin lights dimmed in their premium economy cabin, for which Elsherif paid $3,000, the man got busy pleasuring himself, she claimed.
Elsherif “froze in her seat and began to panic; she felt extremely uncomfortable and helpless,” the court docs read.
“John Doe continued to masturbate . . . for approximately 60 minutes, and during that time neither the Flight Attendant nor another AA crew member walked through the Premium Economy cabin,” according to the Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.
When he finally stopped, Elsherif left her seat and found a flight attendant but got no help, she claimed.
The flight attendant told Elsherif there was “nothing really that [she] could do,” other than move the businesswoman to coach.
“Men just do stuff like that,” the flight attendant allegedly told her, noting that her own husband “did stuff like that,” a shocked Elsherif claimed in the legal papers.
The flight attendant made Elsherif feel she “was expected to endure such grotesque misconduct, and reinforc[ed] the pernicious and unlawful stereotype that women must tolerate male predation as a fact of life.”
The flight crew failed to report the incident and the flight attendant allegedly refused to even speak to John Doe, she said.
“Because [Elsherif] is an Arab woman, the Flight Attendant did not treat [her] report of John Doe masturbating next to her as a sexual assault,” she contended in the litigation, accusing American Airlines of negligence, discrimination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“American strives to provide a positive experience to everyone who travels with us. We are reviewing the allegations of the complaint,” a company spokesman said in a statement.