Flight security

FBI warns about sexual assaults on airline flights

The FBI is warning about a serious federal crime that’s on the rise, even though many incidents are probably not being reported: sexual assaults.

While sexual assaults on airline flights are still relatively rare, agents said, the number of reported cases has increased in recent years.

In 2014, 38 cases of in-flight sexual assault were reported to the FBI. Last year, that number increased to 63 reported cases, but officials believe the crimes are significantly under-reported.

There have already been 10 reports of sexual assaults on flights that landed at BWI Marshall Airport in 2018, sources said. Those numbers are in line with what other airports around the country have been seeing.

The attacks usually involve inappropriate touching ranging from “grazing a body part to even more graphic acts,” said Brian Nadeau, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore division.