In April 2016, I was sexually assaulted on an overnight flight.

I awoke to a male passenger grabbing my crotch repeatedly. He hit and blocked me as I yelled “no,” slapped his hands and scrambled to get away and alert the crew. Despite my efforts, and to my shock, no action was taken by the airline to identify the attacker or report the incident to authorities. In the weeks that followed, my shock turned to anger and then to action as I discovered the gaps in awareness, training and data. 

As a result of my experience, I am in an ongoing lawsuit with the airline. But it isn’t enough to work for justice for myself. We need industry standards to train airline staff and standardized ways to report and address instances of sexual assault in the skies.

I can’t provide exact numbers on how often assaults occur at 37,000 feet, and neither can airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FBI, or anyone else — that’s a problem. The numbers we do have should be more than enough to spur real action, though.

Flying the unfriendly skies

According to the FBI, there was a 66 percent increase in cases of assault reported to the bureau between 2014 and 2017, but many cases go unreported.

In a survey conducted by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), nearly 70 percent of flight attendants surveyed were sexually harassed or assaulted on the job, but only 7 percent reported it for fear of backlash from their airlines. And 20 percent of flight attendants reported receiving reports of assault from their passengers, but didn’t know how to intervene or report it. As a consequence, less than 50 percent of those reported situations resulted in law enforcement meeting the plane on the ground upon arrival.

Read more commentary:

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Passengers and crew are sexually assaulted and harassed far too often. When they go unreported, the perpetrators, undeterred, are free to assault again. Airlines have failed to take the issue seriously.

Thanks to advocates, we are increasingly paying attention to sexual assault and harassment on college campuses, in our workplaces and our society at large. But air travel is still an outlier. It’s time to change that.

In response to survivors and advocacy organizations, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) introduced the Stopping Sexual Assault while Flying Enforcement Act of 2017. In September 2018, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 required that the Department of Transportation (DOT) create a National In-Flight Sexual Misconduct Task Force to address these issues. 

In February, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the task force participants. Sadly, the list does not inspire confidence that change is coming.

Neither the AFA, representing 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, nor survivors of in-flight sexual assault have been named to the task force. Once again, the people most affected by this issue have been pushed out of the rooms where decisions will be made.

The DOT and FAA have a duty to ensure the aviation industry is held accountable for passenger safety, but scandals like ongoing sexual assault and the delayed grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8, show that FAA leadership has all but abandoned that duty.

Simple, serious solutions to sexual assault

President Trump has finally nominated an FAA administrator — after the post was left vacant for more than a year. It is critical that the next administrator take immediate steps to demonstrate that he will regulate the industry — not protect it.

One simple, immediate step the next FAA administrator can take is by showing that the FAA is serious about deterring and addressing on-board sexual assault and harassment.

In the meantime, predators continue to assault passengers (including children) and crew. Late last month, Vancouver-based journalist Joanna Chiu wrote on Twitter about intervening to protect a minor who was sexually harassed in flight, thankfully the crew responded and the perpetrator was met by security.

It should not require federal legislation for airlines to take a stand against sexual violence and put procedures in place to deter crimes on their planes. While I applaud Alaska Airlines, which is leading the way with new training and in-flight messaging, changes and data reporting must be mandatory across the industry.

As it moves forward, the task force must ensure the following steps are in place: mandatory data collection of reported in-flight sexual misconduct; trauma-informed training for crew; and a zero tolerance statement in pre-flight videos and back-of-the-seat safety cards with clear guidance for passengers who experience or witness sexual misconduct onboard.

For the women, men and children sexually assaulted while flying who have demanded action, as well as those who suffer in silence, the DOT must do more than check a box. Sexual assault can no longer be treated as an inconvenience, it is a crime and must be treated as such.

Allison Dvaladze is the director of global strategy for an international cancer initiative based in Seattle and founder of Protect Airline Passengers from Sexual Assault (PAPSA). Follow her on Twitter @dvarusalka and @papsanow1.

U.S. airlines started returning to full service Monday morning after a disruption of data they needed for takeoff caused delays across the country.

The issue involved weight and balance information provided by AeroData Inc. that is needed for flight planning, the agency said in a statement. The interruption lasted for about 48 minutes starting at 5:24 a.m. in Washington, the FAA said. Mainline and regional carriers were affected to varying degrees.

The intermittent problem lasted about two hours, according to American Airlines Group Inc., which experienced delays at some of its regional affiliates. Delta Air Lines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co. and United Continental Holdings Inc. also were affected. Delta also said that only its regional flights were affected.

United said 150 flights by its United Express regional carriers were delayed. “Some flights that were affected have departed, and we’re working to get all affected flights back on schedule,” the carrier said in a statement. Delta said it didn’t expect any cancellations among the Delta Express flights delayed by the outage.

Detroit Metropolitan Airport was experiencing arrival delays an average of 31 minutes, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware early Monday morning. The airport showed 56 delays and one cancellation between 6-10 a.m, FlightAware showed.

Airport officials said they had no additional information on the disruption.

Assembling the wing from thousands of tiny identical pieces could make aircraft lighter and more energy efficient.

How it works: Inside the wing there is an open, lightweight lattice framework covered with a thin layer of polymer material. It looks like thousands of matchstick-type struts welded together in small triangle shapes. This design lets it adapt and deform so that it is the perfect shape for the different stages of flight—takeoff, landing, cruising, and so on. It is also far lighter than conventional wings, and would therefore use much less energy. The manufacturing process incorporates 3D printing and robotic assembly.

The promise: A wing made this way could allow future aircraft wing designs to become far more flexible, according to the scientists at NASA and MIT who worked together on the research. The design was tested in a NASA wind tunnel.

Other applications: As well as aircraft, this sort of design could be used to improve wind turbines, spacecraft, and even bridges one day, the team says.

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Welcome to the March 4 Monday Business Briefing, your weekly business intelligence digest from Insider Louisville.

GLI bookends events and introduces GLIDE trip to Silicon Valley and beyond

The local chamber of commerce has air travel on its mind. First, at the Greater Louisville Inc. annual meeting last Monday, the futurist Thomas Frey predicted disruption in air travel by drone taxis, self-driving cars and mini airports. One outcome for the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport: fewer parked cars and less revenue for the airport authority, Frey suggested.

During a top investor event on Friday morning about nonstop flights, Dan Mann, executive director of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority, noted that even with the airport’s routinely packed parking lot, a new $40 million parking garage wasn’t the answer. “I said no, I don’t think we should do that. In seven or eight years, I think shared rides, and driverless cars will have an impact.”

Speaking of nonstop, two years ago, there were 21 nonstop destinations from SDF. Now, there are 33 nonstop destinations and growing, GLI noted. On the wish list are Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto. “That’s a big, tall order,” said Chuck Denny, PNC Bank regional president, who introduced the panel on Friday. “But I know we can make it happen. Let’s all take a flight to Los Angeles, many times.”

The nonstop service to Los Angeles on American Airlines starts April 3. As of Sunday morning, basic economy seats were available for $347 round trip, $407 in the main cabin and one first-class seat was available at $878.

GLI last week also introduced GLIDE 2019, Sept. 8-11 in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Sonoma County, which coincides with the chamber’s year of technology, where the goal is to “gain insight into how to fast-forward our approach to” attracting big companies and talent, said Deana Epperly Karem, vice president for regional economic growth, on Friday. The trip, which tends to sell out, is open to top investors and board members first, then to members after April 30. —Mickey Meece

Wine industry responds to bourbon’s demand for equal treatment in SB99

On Wednesday, Insider brought you the story about the new wine shipping legislation, Senate Bill 99, which has passed the Senate and could possibly be called up to committee this week. The controversy of the bill, which would allow direct out-of-state shipments of wine to Kentucky consumers, is that it doesn’t give the state’s bourbon industry equal footing, so says Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.

After that piece ran, we received an email from Jeremy Benson, executive director of Free the Grapes! — a national grassroots coalition that endorsed SB99, since Kentucky is one of five states that doesn’t allow shipping of wine — with a few points his group would like to make:

• Adding spirits to SB99 would not increase the ability of Kentucky distillers to ship directly to consumers in other states. To the contrary, it would allow Kentuckians to order spirits from all over the country to compete with Kentucky bourbon. The key point that gets lost is that a consumer’s ability to receive shipments from U.S. distillers, wineries or brewers is determined by state laws covering the destination of the shipment, not its origin.
• SB99 is based on what the wine industry calls the “model direct shipping bill,” which was the culmination of negotiations back in the late 1990s. It never included beer or spirits companies, only wineries. So to suggest that it’s not right because of “equal treatment” … is very odd. I can’t think of a state that has ever combined wine and spirits direct shipping into one bill. Here’s a link to the model bill language.
• HB400 never worked for wine lovers in Kentucky — FedEx and UPS are not shipping.