A disturbing incident that occurred during an American Airlines flight from New York to Milan has made headlines. Fashion entrepreneur Neel Elsherif, the CEO of three different companies, including the luxury vegan leather brand Mela, claimed that a passenger sitting next to her in first class harassed her. According to the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, flight attendants allegedly failed to intervene during the incident.

Harassment Allegation and the Flight Attendant’s Response

The incident took place on May 27 aboard a flight departing from JFK Airport. Court documents state that a passenger identified as “John Doe” engaged in inappropriate behavior after consuming several glasses of champagne. Elsherif alleged that the man masturbated for nearly an hour by rubbing his genitals over his pants. She stated that she was frozen in shock during the incident and felt extremely uncomfortable, adding that she was too afraid to sleep.

Elsherif claimed that she reported the situation to a flight attendant but did not receive the support she expected. According to the court documents, the flight attendant allegedly responded by saying, “Men do things like this” and mentioned that her own husband exhibited similar behavior. Additionally, the attendant offered Elsherif a seat in economy class but refused to confront the alleged harasser.

Lawsuit Against American Airlines

The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court accuses American Airlines of negligence, discrimination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. According to Elsherif’s claims, the flight crew neither formally reported the incident nor reprimanded the perpetrator.

Furthermore, Elsherif alleged in the lawsuit that the flight attendant did not consider the incident as sexual assault because she is an Arab woman.