Spirit Passenger Accused of Sexually Assaulting Sleeping Woman

A man is facing federal charges after allegedly sexually assaulting a female passenger while she slept next to him on a Spirit Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Detroit.

According to the Washington Post, 34-year-old Indian national Prabhu Ramamoorthy, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and is being held without bail after a 22-year-old woman said she woke up to find her pants and shirt unbuttoned and the man's hand inside of her pants.

The woman reported the alleged attack to flight attendants around 5:30 a.m. local time Wednesday, roughly 40 minutes before the flight landed in Detroit. At least two flight attendants told officials the woman was crying and that her shirt and pants were unbuttoned.

Federal prosecutor Amanda Jawad said crew members offered the woman a different seat at the back of the plane. Ramamoorthy, who was seated between his wife and the victim when the alleged assault occurred, was arrested upon landing.

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Ramamoorthy told federal agents he fell into a deep sleep after taking a pill—later identified as a "plain Tylenol"—and had learned from his wife that the woman fell asleep on his knees.

Though the man's wife told authorities they tried to change seats, flight attendants said the victim was the only person to request a seat change.

"What makes this offense particularly egregious and the defendant even more of a danger to the community is the fact that it took place on an airplane," said Jawad. "He was brazen enough to do this basically in public, next to his wife where anyone could have seen him."

Both Ramamoorthy and his wife are living in the U.S. on temporary visas, the Post reported.

Spirit Airlines spokesman Stephen Schuler said the carrier is cooperating with authorities to resolve the incident.

The disturbing incident comes just months after a man plead guilty to fondling a sleeping woman on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Pittsburgh.

United Airlines came under fire last summer after an Indian doctor in the U.S. for a month-long medical fellowship was accused of groping a 16-year-old girl while she slept on a flight from Seattle to Newark. The girl and her family later filed a complaint against United, alleging the airline violated its policy requiring crew members to alert authorities of allegations of crimes committed in the sky.

READ MORE: Do Airlines Need a New Plan to Combat Sexual Assault?

As of late December 2017, the FBI had opened 63 investigations into sexual assault on aircraft for the fiscal year 2017, up from just 38 in 2014.

What's more, one out of five flight attendants received a report of passenger on passenger sexual assault during a flight, according to an Association of Flight Attendants-CWA survey of 2,000 crew members. However, law enforcement was contacted less than half of the time.

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