Man Jailed For Groping American Airlines Flight Attendant

Man Jailed For Groping American Airlines Flight Attendant

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During the pandemic we’ve seen an endless amount of unruly passenger behavior, and all too often passengers get away with it. It amazes me how often people aren’t even arrested, and charges aren’t filed. Well, here’s a case where a passenger is facing a serious punishment for his actions.

Man groped American Airlines flight attendant

This incident involves an American Airlines flight (AA1723) from Cancun (CUN) to Miami (MIA) on August 6, 2021. A 50-year-old Canadian citizen named Enio Socorro Zayas is at the center of this.

According to an FBI affidavit, the crew was performing service in the main cabin. Zayas was asleep at this time, so the flight attendant left some snacks in the man’s lap, and continued serving others. Apparently Zayas took this as an advance, and moments later the flight attendant felt a hand “grip the bottom of her thigh and move upwards towards the lower portion of her buttocks before rubbing firmly from side to side.”

How disgusting and degrading. Fortunately the flight attendant not only reported this incident, but other passengers came forward as witnesses, so that the man could be charged.

A passenger assaulted an American flight attendant

Man now jailed for six months for assault

All too often people get away with bad behavior on planes, though this time the guy is paying a major price. Back in October 2021 Zayas entered a plea agreement, admitting to one count of assault within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States.

This week a federal judge has sentenced Zayas to six months in prison, and then he’ll be on supervised release for a further year. A few thoughts:

  • This man’s behavior was disgusting, and it’s good to see someone be charged for their misbehavior for once; I imagine it helps that the flight attendant reported this, and that others came forward to corroborate the story
  • At the same time, I can’t help but point out the huge variance in terms of how people get punished for inflight disturbances; some people act this way and don’t even get arrested or charged, while others are in jail for six months
  • In a way I guess that sums up the inconsistency of the legal system overall

Maybe behavior on planes would be better if people consistently faced consequences like this.

It’s good to see someone held accountable for once

Bottom line

A man is being jailed for six months after groping an American Airlines flight attendant on a Cancun to Miami flight in August 2021. All too often we see people get away with horrible behavior on planes, so hopefully stories like this act as a reminder to not misbehave.

What do you make of the six month jail sentence for this inflight assault?

Conversations (33)
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  1. Joejv Guest

    It is not the severity of the punishment that prevents crime, but the assurance of getting caught.

  2. Mike Guest

    First, the passenger seems like a jerk and I am glad he was sentenced to jail term.
    Second, in this particular case, I think the fact that the incident happened at 30,000 feet is not overly important. In some parts of the country you can see service stuff (I.e. waitresses ) dealing with this on a daily basis. I wish the same standard of punishment applied there as well.

  3. glenn t Diamond

    Oops! Bad misreading of a situation. Just because someone drops candy in your lap, doesn't necessarily mean the giver is signalling something more.
    Six months in the slammer sounds a bit excessive though.

  4. GLCTraveler Gold

    ALL unruly passengers that commit assault to either a flight crew or other passenger, don't wear a mask or follow other rules when instructed by a crew member, must be dealt with quickly and HARSHLY with jail time or with permanent bans on flying!! Unruly behavior endangers all passengers on a plane and should NOT be tolerated. PERIOD.

    I love what YouTube has done to misinformation spreading Anti-Covid Vax idiots like Dan Bongino when he...

    ALL unruly passengers that commit assault to either a flight crew or other passenger, don't wear a mask or follow other rules when instructed by a crew member, must be dealt with quickly and HARSHLY with jail time or with permanent bans on flying!! Unruly behavior endangers all passengers on a plane and should NOT be tolerated. PERIOD.

    I love what YouTube has done to misinformation spreading Anti-Covid Vax idiots like Dan Bongino when he was banned PERMANENTLY. In addition to YouTube; Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook should do the same and ban him too!! Dan is Fox New's Biggest Dope of a host for evading his Covid misinformation suspension!! That will teach that Moron a lesson...... This guy had a Trump-sized Ego, that only got him into trouble. When will people learn?

  5. derek Guest

    I saw on a TV show that a man had a brain tumor in his frontal lobe area causing 2 incidents of groping.

    1. glenn t Diamond

      Was that on an episode of 'Believe It Or Not!' ?

    2. foo blah Guest

      frontotemporal dementia causes this sort of behavior as well.

      this dude must be one hard-up perv to do that. Most AA FAs are dried up old prunes. Ha!

  6. guisun Diamond

    Also there is variance with sex. It it was a women touching a male flight attendant, the perpetrator would probably get a slap on the wrist, like a minor fine and some hours of communitive service at most. Rule of thumb never touch anyone without permission (like how fights starts with strangers)

  7. BNG Guest

    Was it too hard for the FA to pull out the tray table and place the snacks there? Why did she have to place them on his lap? Also people do worst things like roofie people and get nothing as consequence, so 6 months in jail is a bit too much, 1-2 months would be enough.

    1. mbg Guest

      Imagine a stranger groped your daughter and then another stranger said to you "oh well, it's kind of her fault for not going out of her way to ensure she wasn't doing anything that could be remotely construed as an advance"

      yikes at all the people victiming blaming and acting okay with this kind of behavior in this comment section.

  8. Another Lump Guest

    Meanwhile, in liberal Austin, TX, murder and mass shooting perp walks free with no bail. Clown world.

    1. BNG Guest

      That’s because liberal Austin TX has to abide by the last of ruby red Texas which heavily protect 2A supporters.

    2. FlyerDon Guest

      What the hell are you talking about Lumpy?

  9. Stuart Guest

    The irony being that flight attendants are rallying around providing less service due to reducing Covid "touch points." Maybe they have a point!

    1. foo blah Guest

      was the FA’s butt a COVID touch point??

  10. Santastico Guest

    He is lucky he will be jailed in Canada. If he was jailed in Mexico he would become a "bride" and been groped by his fellow inmates would be the least of his worries.

    1. Ray Gold

      Please share your experience in both countries prisons so we can know if this is a credible comment.

  11. Never In Doubt Guest

    Oh. Canada.

  12. Mark Guest

    6 months jail for grabbing a little bit of ass seems a bit extreme.

  13. Mark Guest

    Not surprised he is Canadian. Why is he flying American?

    1. Curtis Guest

      I'm Canadian and have Exec Platinum status on American. It flies where I need to go...is that an issue?

    2. Frank B Gold

      That you are Canadian, not really. That anyone is forced to fly places on AA enough to get Executive Platinum, yes.

    3. Curtis Guest

      Ha! because it's true. AA is not what it used to be.

  14. Erik Nordenson Guest

    What is wrong with passengers in the States ?? You never read about such incidents in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia/NZ. That country is just going downhill more and more each day

    1. Icarus Guest

      Firstly he was Canadian. There are also many incidents in Europe l involving intoxicated travellers, assault and abuse. Just because you didn’t personally read it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

    2. RC Guest

      You are reading a blog targeting readers in the U.S., so of course you read about mostly incidents that happen in the U.S.

  15. Alonzo Guest

    Since when does an FA leave anything in a sleeping passengers lap? Haven't seen or heard of that before. If you were sleep when the cart passed, you get up and head to the galley when you wake up...

    1. mbg Guest

      short answer - it doesn't matter. assault is assault

    2. Rob Guest

      So, no good deed goes unpunished? Not sure if this is intended to be victim blaming, but either way it's a bad look...

    3. Reno Joe Guest

      I've seen it. Lame comment -- it seemingly justifies this jerk's behavior.

    4. Sel, D. Guest

      This is actually a legitimate question. Good thing the creep is in jail, and let’s not assume this is an attempt at victim blaming. I’ve never seen this either. Maybe on a tray that was down. He’ll need those sleeping skills in his new cell.

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mbg Guest

short answer - it doesn't matter. assault is assault

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mbg Guest

Imagine a stranger groped your daughter and then another stranger said to you "oh well, it's kind of her fault for not going out of her way to ensure she wasn't doing anything that could be remotely construed as an advance" yikes at all the people victiming blaming and acting okay with this kind of behavior in this comment section.

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mbg Guest

yikes

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