Frontier sued over in-flight sexual assault

(CN) — A Texas woman says Frontier Airlines failed to prevent her from being sexually assaulted on a 2024 red-eye flight and never investigated her complaint in a lawsuit filed Monday morning.

On an overnight flight from San Francisco to Dallas, Guadalupe Castaneda says she fell asleep and woke up to a strange man’s hand across her lap, caressing her inner thigh. Castaneda reported the incident to the flight crew and submitted a complaint to Frontier.

In response, Frontier offered her a $75 voucher.

Castaneda says Frontier never investigated her complaint and has declined to identify the male passenger to her or law enforcement.

She is suing on a single count of negligence, pursuing an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.

Working as a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines, Castaneda says she was in her uniform while traveling home after an intercontinental assignment. She says the male passenger, who sat in the middle seat while she sat against the window, brushed his leg and hand against her leg multiple times before she fell asleep in her seat.

Castaneda says Frontier failed to implement any safety or monitoring measures to prevent in-flight sexual assault. She says the flight attendants on duty neglected their responsibility to walk through the cabin at least once every 60 minutes.

Additionally, she says Frontier should have taken extra precautions for red-eye flights with darkened cabins, “despite industry knowledge that such conditions heighten the risk of in-flight sexual assault.”

“Frontier Airlines’ acts and omissions enabled the male passenger to assault plaintiff and demonstrate a disregard for her safety, well-being and rights,” she says in the complaint.

Frontier has been on notice for in-flight sexual assaults since at least 2019.

“Frontier Airlines claims it puts safety first,” Castaneda says. “In reality, Frontier Airlines has repeatedly failed to take allegations of  sexual assault seriously — particularly when those allegations are raised by women.”

In December 2019, two women led a class action in federal court in Denver — where Castaneda’s complaint is filed — accusing the airline of inadequately responding to their own reports of sexual assault on two separate Frontier flights.

Both women in that class action say the flight crews refused to report the incidents to law enforcement or escalate the complaint within the company. Frontier refused to identify perpetrators or potential witnesses, according to court documents.

That case is still ongoing.

Separately in 2021, a man pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact after he fondled a teenage girl and masturbated in front of her on a Frontier flight.

Castaneda says the incidents together show a pattern of Frontier failing to monitor its cabins for the safety of its passengers.

In 2018, the FBI issued a public advisory noting a substantial increase in the number of reported sexual assaults on airplanes in the previous four years. In response, the agency assigned agents to more than 450 U.S. airports, including the Denver airport in which Frontier is based and the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, where Castaneda’s flight landed.

The advisory said victims are most often seated in the middle or window seat, where Castaneda was seated for her flight.

Castaneda is represented by Romanucci & Blandin LLC. In 2025, the firm filed two lawsuits against United Airlines and American Airlines, representing women who say they were sexually assaulted on red-eye flights. Both airlines tout “zero tolerance” sexual harassment policies.

Frontier has not responded to a request for comment.

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