American Airlines passenger sentenced after sexually assaulting teen on CLT-to-RDU flight
A North Carolina man was sentenced to prison Tuesday for putting his hands down the pants of a 17-year-old girl he sat beside on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Raleigh, prosecutors said.
The 38-year-old flier, Ryan Eugene Larned of Fayetteville, will spend 10 months behind bars for sexually assaulting the girl, according to a news release Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Michael Easley Jr.’s office. Easley is U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The incident occurred on Feb. 17, 2021, according to a grand jury indictment.
Larned pleaded guilty in July to sexual contact without consent while on an airplane.
Without ever talking to the high school junior seated beside him, Larned touched her groin area, according to court documents.
Larned then put his jacket over both himself and the teen and “reached his hands inside the pants of the female,” according to the news release. The victim, who was in the window seat and traveling alone, “immediately reported the assault,” prosecutors said in the release.
“This defendant assaulted a young woman traveling alone, and now he will be spending time behind bars and will be identified as a sex offender in the community,” Easley said in a statement. “No passenger, flight crew, or flight attendant should have to fly in fear.”
U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan in New Bern also ordered Larned to register as a sex offender and pay a $2,000 fine, court records show.
Other unruly behavior on flights
In April, the Federal Aviation Administration announced its largest ever fine for unruly behavior this month, demanding $81,950 from a woman who was duct-taped to her seat on an American Airlines flight to Charlotte in July, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
The passenger was among thousands of people reported to the FAA for unruly behavior on planes since 2021. The FAA issued roughly $2 million in fines from Jan. 1, 2022, to mid-April, the Observer reported.
FAA data suggest that unruly passenger incidents may still be dropping, even though investigations initiated by the agency into unruly passengers remain high.
In late 2021, the FAA linked a drop in unruly passenger incidents to its Zero Tolerance campaign and high fines as a strong deterrent for dangerous and unruly behavior on planes.
The FAA could surpass 2021 in the number of investigations initiated this year if it continues at the same rate, the Observer reported. In 2021, the FAA initiated 1,113 investigations. As of mid-April, investigations had begun into 345 incidents.
Last year, 5,981 unruly passenger incidents were reported to the FAA and 1,150 in the first 3 1/2 months of 2022.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 1:26 PM with the headline "American Airlines passenger sentenced after sexually assaulting teen on CLT-to-RDU flight."