A teenage girl who was sexually assaulted during a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Orlando is suing Delta Air Lines for negligence, claiming flight attendants served her assailant alcohol and failed to restrain him after the assault.
As a result, attorneys for the 13-year-old girl and her family claim her attacker touched another passenger during the June 23, 2022, flight, and then harassed the underage girl by grabbing his groin and yelling at her as she and her family tried to get off the plane.
“What was intended as a joyful family trip turned into a life-altering, traumatic experience for a young teenager and every parent’s worst nightmare,” the suit, filed in federal court, reads.
Brian Patrick Durning, 53, of Altadena, was sentenced in September to five years in prison over the attack and is currently in a low-security federal prison in New Jersey.
Attorneys for the teenage girl and her family say in court documents that they are still living with the impacts of the attack, which have affected the girl as well as her young brother and their mother, who were also on board the flight.
The family is asking that Delta Air Lines pay for past, present and future damages suffered, including lost earnings by the girl, her brother and her mother as a result of assault, but the lawsuit does not specify a dollar amount.
The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 30 in state court, but the case was transferred to federal court earlier this month because the court found the amount of damages in question exceeded $75,000, and the defendant and plaintiffs live in different states, according to court records.
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In the complaint, attorneys claim Delta Air Lines “enabled” the attack, alleging Durning was already visibly intoxicated when he boarded, and was served alcohol during the beginning of the overnight flight.
In a short statement, a spokesperson for Delta declined to comment on the suit.
“We have zero tolerance for unlawful behavior on flights and in airports and work with law enforcement to that end,” the statement read.
According to the suit, the then-13-year-old girl — identified only as Z.B. in court documents — was traveling from LAX to Orlando with her brother and mother to visit family.
During the overnight flight, the mother was seated with her son, but the 13-year-old was seated separately in a middle seat with a woman on one side, and Durning on the other.
The assault began, according to the suit, after Durning was served alcohol in the flight and after the lights were dimmed.
According to court records, Durning began to touch the girl’s hair, her breasts and her vagina while touching his genitals.
At one point, Durning called the girl “honey boo” and told her he planned to take her away from her family to Texas.
The girl already experienced anxiety and selective mutism, which made her unable to scream out or call for help during the attack, according to the suit.
Flight attendants were finally alerted when the female passenger on the other side woke up and saw Durning quickly move his hand away from the minor.
The passenger yelled at Durning to stop, switched seats with the girl, and called for the flight attendants.
Durning allegedly touched the female passenger’s breasts as well as she called for help.
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Attorneys for the family claim flight attendants did not restrain Durning or place him in the back of the plane. Instead, he was moved to a seat diagonally and within view of Z.B.
This was done, the suit claim, even after Z.B.’s mother asked that he be moved somewhere out of sight from her daughter.
Durning continued to harass her and her family, touching himself while looking at Z.B. and her family during the rest of the flight, according to the lawsuit.
The suit claims he was allowed to roam the cabin of the plane, which allowed him to harass Z.B. and touch himself in front of her.
Before the flight landed in Orlando, Durning is accused of also touching the female passenger who was seated next to him after he was moved.
At the end of the flight as the family tried to walk out of the plane through the jet bridge, Durning allegedly grabbed his groin, screamed and appeared to throw his phone down as they walked past.
Since the incident, attorneys claim Z.B. has suffered from nightmares, post-traumatic stress, depression and panic attacks.
According to the suit, she has hurt herself, and her grades have suffered after she missed about 40 days of school. She refuses to hug family members and, “has reacted negatively to her father touching her on the shoulder.”
“Formerly an excellent student and popular classmate, she now struggles academically, does not want to go to school and has isolated herself socially,” the claim states.
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Her brother, 16 at the time, has also suffered from anxiety, according to court documents, has a fear of flying now and has developed a fear of male strangers.
“He has become afraid of dark public spaces such as movie theaters and refuses to go to places outside of school, or home without his mother,” it states.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
