A 23-year-old flight attendant saving her virginity for marriage says she was sexually harassed by two pilots when she started working for Alaska Airlines’ wholly-owned regional subsidiary.
The flight attendant, identified only by the initials JB in a recent lawsuit filed in Oregon district court, began working for Horizon Air in July 2023, but just two months later she claimed she was “repeatedly and severely harassed” by the two pilots.
The lawsuit includes reams of text messages and Snapchat conversations between the flight attendant and the pilots in which the two men sent unwanted messages about “masturbation, fellatio and cunnilingus.”
When the flight attendant confronted her superiors at Horizon Air about the pilots’ behavior, the airline ignored her allegations, the lawsuit says. It even “implied that the plaintiff was to blame because she allegedly encouraged the inappropriate behavior.”
Without intervention from Horizon Air’s human resources department, JB says the behavior continued unchecked, and in February 2024, she began suffering from panic attacks due to what she described as a “hostile work environment.”
The harassment probably began quite harmlessly, when the flight attendant exchanged messages with the pilots, but repeatedly reminded them that she was a sober person and only wanted to be friends with them.
However, after one of these flights, one of the pilots is said to have “lured” the young flight attendant into his hotel room and sexually abused her there, which also included unwanted kisses and touching.
JB asked to change her duties so that she would no longer have to work with the pilots, but Horizon Air reportedly denied her request because crew rosters are based solely on seniority.
By March of this year, the alleged sexual harassment had become so severe that JB says he was forced to take a leave of absence. At the same time, JB reported the unwanted behavior to the police, even though the pilots are believed to still be actively flying for Horizon Air.
In a text message conversation between one of the pilots, an innocuous exchange about eating seafood suddenly took a new turn when the pilot replied, “You can do anything you put your mind to… you can eat ass if you’re wild enough.”
The message continued: “You need to watch more adult videos on the internet… You learn bad habits but also what people can do with enough motivation lol.”
And in a Snapchat message exchange with another pilot, JB repeatedly rejected the crew member’s advances. “Can I see you,” the pilot wrote. “I don’t feel comfortable doing this, sorry,” JB replied. “I want to see you. You’re so hot,” the pilot replied.
“I’m not sending you nudes, I already told you that,” JB wrote back. The pilot replied, “Just a little. I just want to see your books, it’s not like I haven’t seen them before.”
In her lawsuit against Horizon Air, the flight attendant accuses the airline of violating an Oregon state anti-discrimination law by subjecting her to a “sexually hostile work environment” because of her gender.
If JB wins the lawsuit, Alaska Air could be forced to pay the flight attendant up to $50 million in punitive damages or 1 percent of his net worth.
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