A 25-year-old woman says an early morning United Airlines flight turned into a disturbing ordeal after the passenger beside her allegedly began masturbating while staring at her.
The United Airlines passenger says the incident happened on September 3 during a regional flight from Rochester, New York, to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. According to NBC News, the flight departed around 6 a.m., but what allegedly happened in the cabin quickly became the bigger issue.
The woman, whose name has been withheld because she reported being the victim of an alleged sexual offense, described the man as appearing between 35 and 40 years old and otherwise unremarkable in appearance.
“I just got the sense [he] had done it before … People don’t just do those things at 6 am,” she told NBC News.
After noticing what the man was allegedly doing, the woman reported the situation to the flight crew. She says she was allowed to remain out of her seat for much of the flight, standing for roughly an hour rather than sitting beside him.
Then came the landing.
As the cabin was being prepared for arrival, the woman says she was instructed to return to her assigned seat next to the same passenger she had reported. She says she repeatedly made it clear that she was uncomfortable returning there.
“On multiple instances, I said I feel uncomfortable doing that,” she said.
According to her account, a flight attendant explained that she would only need to remain seated for several minutes. The passenger said the process lasted longer than expected, and because her seat was toward the rear of the aircraft, she also remained near the man while passengers waited to exit.
After the plane reached Newark, another issue arose for her. The woman says law enforcement was not waiting to remove or question the man and that he was allowed to leave the aircraft.
She said she approached a United worker at the gate about what happened. According to her account, the response was: “What am I supposed to do about it?”
The passenger later filed complaints with United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration and contacted the FBI. She says United subsequently offered her a $100 flight credit, while her original trip cost about $400.
The woman also criticized language she says appeared in an airline response to her complaint, particularly wording describing the alleged incident as behavior that caused her concern.
“I DID remove myself and ask for help,” she said while objecting to the characterization.
For her, the issue was not simply what another passenger allegedly did. It was also how she says the situation was handled once she alerted the people responsible for the cabin.
“It is the first time I’ve been purposely trapped by people who were supposed to be helping me,” she said.
United Airlines has confirmed that it is reviewing the report.
“We are looking into this report but don’t have anything additional to share at this time,” a United spokesperson told PEOPLE.
The allegations arrive against a broader backdrop of federal investigations involving sexual misconduct aboard commercial aircraft. The FBI specifically lists sexual assault, indecent exposure and lewd, indecent, sexual or obscene acts among the offenses it investigates when they occur during flights.
And similar cases have reached federal authorities in recent years.
In 2024, federal prosecutors said Krishna Kunapuli pleaded guilty to committing lewd, indecent or obscene acts aboard an aircraft after passengers reported seeing him masturbating during a flight from Abu Dhabi to Boston. Prosecutors said he had also made unwanted advances toward a female passenger. He received two years of probation and a $5,000 fine.
That same year, a federal judge found Evan Thomas Carter guilty of indecent exposure aboard an aircraft stemming from a 2020 American Airlines flight from Seattle to Charlotte. Prosecutors said evidence showed Carter exposed himself to passengers seated in his row and rubbed himself for at least 20 minutes before those passengers were moved.
Rapper Desiigner, whose legal name is Sidney Royel Selby III, also faced a federal indecent exposure charge following a 2023 Delta flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors said he exposed himself multiple times and masturbated during one of those instances. Flight attendants moved him to the rear of the aircraft, where travel companions agreed to monitor him.
More recently, a man was arrested in June 2025 after authorities accused him of abusive sexual contact involving another passenger aboard an American Airlines flight from Boston to Washington, D.C.
The FBI has repeatedly urged passengers to report suspected sexual misconduct to flight crews, airport police and federal authorities. The bureau said it investigated 104 sexual assault aboard aircraft cases in 2024 alone and cautioned that the real number could be higher because some incidents may never be reported.
For the woman at the center of the United complaint, reporting the alleged behavior was only the beginning. Her account now puts a second question in focus: what should happen inside the cabin after a passenger says the person sitting inches away has crossed that line?
