A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago is seeking answers from federal authorities nearly five weeks after the reported incident.
Leah Melley told Channel 11 she was traveling for work on September 22 when a man sitting next to her began touching her and exposed himself.
She said it happened about 30 minutes into the flight.
“I have daughters. I have family. What if it had been one of them?” Melley said.
Melley said she was sitting in a window seat and initially made conversation with the man beside her.
“The gentleman next to me asked me questions. Just kind of talking to me, traditional airplane etiquette,” she said.
She said she later put in her AirPods and turned toward the window because she wanted to be left alone.
As the flight continued, Melley said the man repeatedly raised the armrest between them after she put it down.
At one point, she said, he pulled out a blanket.
Melley said she began to feel something against her arm but initially thought it could have been because the passengers were sitting close together.
“I soon realized he was rubbing my arm,” she said.
Melley said the man then positioned the blanket to block the view.
“He curtained it off and I didn’t really pay much attention, but then I started feeling him touching my leg, touch my inner thigh and then I realized at this point, he had exposed himself and was touching himself,” she said.
Melley said she froze and told the man she needed to get up.
“He just looked at me and mouthed the words ‘no’ with this very look in his eyes that I will not forget,” she said.
She said she eventually woke another passenger and made her way to the back of the plane, where she told a flight attendant what happened.
She was moved to another seat.
United Airlines sent Channel 11 the following statement:
“We take this issue seriously, and this customer was moved to a different seat after reporting the incident to the flight crew. We also spoke with the customer and apologized for her experience. Law enforcement met this aircraft upon arrival in Chicago, and we have banned the other person involved pending our investigation.”
Melley said she wants charges filed and is frustrated that she has not heard from federal authorities about what happened after the plane landed.
“We are at week five. Did you arrest him, did you charge him, are you going to charge him? Give me something,” she said.
In a statement to Channel 11, the FBI’s Chicago office did not say whether an investigation is underway.
“Department of Justice policy prevents us from commenting on the nature of any investigations that may or may not be occurring.”
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
©2026 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
