A man has been fired from his job after molesting a woman beside him, both while she slept and while she was awake, during a commercial flight.
He apparently also told a flight attendant that he was “horny” and pleasured himself.
No one enjoys flying, but this particular intercontinental flight was a nightmare for the woman seated beside him.
According to court documents, Monte Wedl was an absolute terror in the skies.
On a United Airlines flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, he apparently downed at least three or four vodka sodas and took an Ambien.
(While it is not an excuse for any behavior that follows aside from falling asleep, please, please do not mix Ambien with alcohol)
Wedl reportedly got out of his seat told an attendant, Eva Yu, that he missed his wife and was “horny.”
That is, uh, literally never appropriate.
And it only got worse from there for Anne Maureen Dowling, the woman who had the unenviable position of being seated beside him.
After making is wildly inappropriate statement to the flight crew member, Wedl returned to his seat.
It was then, the documents allege, that he placed his “hand on the back of her leg near her buttock.”
Don’t … don’t do that.
Dowling “removed his hand and fell back asleep.” Sometimes, you don’t know how to respond to an awkward situation so you do your best to ignore it in the hopes that it will stop.
In Dowling’s case, it only became worse.
She woke up again to Wedl allegedly “rubbing her thigh, grabbing her butt, and attempting to reach into her pants.”
This alleged sexual assault was only repelled when she “cried ‘stop’ and he withdrew his hand from her body.”
Her outrage did not seem to mean much to Wedl, who reportedly “creepily smiled at her in response.” Yikes.
That should have never happened, of course — but surely that should have been the end of this nightmare.
Unfortunately, it was not.
Later during the flight, Wedl apparently “forced his hand between Dowling’s body and her own hand.”
It sounds like she was trying to protect her body with her hands, to no avail.
“He then,” the documents describe. “Firmly began rubbing her vagina through her clothes.”
No!!
As if to make matters somehow worse than they already were, Wedl was allegedly “rapidly masturbating underneath his blanket” at the same time.
As we mentioned, Wedl was fired from his job. He was a commercial pilot for FedEx.
She was eventually moved, but she says that a flight attendant initially told her that it would not be possible, and suggested that she instead talk to Wendl about his behavior.
Upon the plane’s landing, Dowling immediately reported what had happened to law enforcement and to the airline.
Wendl was acquitted. Now that the criminal case has ended, Dowling is moving forward with a lawsuit against United.
This took place in business class, by the way. Dowling had been upgraded at the beginning of the flight.
Now she has PTSD, and is seeking $ 75,000 in damages from both United and Wedl.
Everyone is scared of flying, but sometimes the most unpleasant experiences during flights come from fellow passengers and not the airplane.
People can be monsters.
