A Sonoma County woman is suing American Airlines, claiming staff blamed her after she was groped on a redeye flight from San Francisco International Airport, and that the airline failed to stop a “known sexual predator” from abusing another woman later.

Barbara Morgan of Windsor was sitting in the middle seat in economy class in April 2024 on a flight from SFO to Dallas-Fort Worth, her lawsuit filed Thursday in San Francisco U.S. District Court said.

Shortly after the lights in the cabin dimmed, the man next to her in the window seat started rubbing his arm against her side in what she believed was an attempt to touch her breasts, her lawsuit claimed. She shifted away, but the man was “undeterred,” and put his hand on her upper thigh then fondled her genitals, the lawsuit alleged.

Morgan yelled, “Stop!” twice, but no airline staff responded, the lawsuit said. Most other passengers were sleeping or wearing headphones, and no one appeared to have noticed her plight, the lawsuit said. Flight crew members did not pass by, and she feared “escalating the situation” by reporting the alleged incident, the lawsuit said. She feared retaliation from the man, and “endured severe emotional distress for the remainder of the flight, trapped beside her assailant as she waited for the plane to land,” the lawsuit claimed.

Upon arrival, Morgan immediately went to an American Airlines gate agent to report the alleged abuse, and pointed out the purported groper, Cherian Abraham, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Abraham could not be reached for comment. His lawyer in a criminal case related to a separate alleged airplane incident declined to comment on the lawsuit or the criminal indictment. American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The gate agent “engaged in victim blaming,” asking Morgan why she had not taken further action to report the alleged incident during the flight. Morgan explained her concerns, but the agent “told her there was nothing they could do,” did not contact law enforcement, and told her to file an online complaint with the airline.

Her complaint the next day drew an automated response promising follow-up, but after she heard nothing for five days she sent a detailed account of the alleged assault to three American Airlines officials, including CEO Robert Isom, the lawsuit said.

Three days later, she received another automated response from the airline, and the following day, she emailed the airline’s customer relations department to complain about the lack of appropriate response, and to warn that Abraham “would continue to abuse girls, women and others if American Airlines failed to take action,” the lawsuit claimed.

She received an email from American’s customer relations, telling her the airline’s corporate security had been asked to look into the matter and would be in touch, the lawsuit said. But when someone called, they again attempted to shift blame to her, for not reporting the alleged assault while still in the air, the lawsuit alleged.

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Just under a year later, Abraham, 54, of Texas was arrested in connection with another alleged groping incident on an American Airlines plane. According to an indictment in federal court in Seattle, he is accused of fondling the breast of a 22-year-old woman while he sat by the window and she sat in the middle seat on flight from Chicago to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on March 18 of this year. The woman, not named in the March 21 indictment, reported the alleged incident to flight staff and was moved to a different seat. Abraham was arrested March 23, and has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of abusive sexual contact.

The alleged incident on the Chicago-to-SeaTac flight could have been prevented if American had taken action on Morgan’s report, her lawsuit claimed.

Morgan further alleged that when Abraham groped her, American knew he had been accused earlier of inappropriately touching a female passenger, on a flight in October 2023. Morgan’s lawsuit alleged that the 2023 incident, referenced in the U.S. Department of Justice’s announcement about Abraham’s indictment, concerned an American Airlines flight, but the announcement and court documents do not appear to name the airline where the alleged incident occurred.

The lawsuit refers to two other lawsuits against American by women who alleged the airline failed to prevent them from being sexually abused. Neel Elsherif claimed a drunk man next to her on a May 2024 flight from New York to Milan masturbated for an hour, and when she reported it to a flight attendant, she was told, “men just do stuff like that.” The airline has denied Elsherif’s claims, court records show. That case continues in federal court in New York. American in January settled a lawsuit by a woman named Aubrey Lane who claimed she was sexually assaulted in a bathroom on a redeye from Phoenix to New York in 2017 by a man who had come on board intoxicated and was served more alcohol by airline staff. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Morgan’s lawsuit accuses American of negligence and accuses Abraham of sexual battery. She is seeking unspecified damages.

Abraham’s trial in the criminal case is scheduled to start Aug. 4.