A dad and his 13 year old daughter flying American Airlines from Seattle to Charlotte last week were shaken to their core when law enforcement met them on arrival. The flight’s crew had radioed ahead to report him as a suspected sex trafficker.
The pair were traveling to the man’s oldest daughter’s graduation. The first time he noticed something amiss was during the flight when he got up to use the lavatory. He returned to learn his daughter was being questioned,
“When I came back, my daughter had some wings. I was like, ‘oh, where did you get those from,’” he recalled.
De Jesus said she told him that a flight attendant came over and asked her if she was OK, where she was going, and who she was going to meet? He said he didn’t think much of it until the plane touched down.
The pair was met in Charlotte “by several individuals” including the head of security for the airport. They were led away for questioning, and nobody would tell them why. Eventually “law enforcement explained to him that flight attendants are trained to look for the signs of human trafficking.”
After they were released – she was his daughter and they were traveling to a family occasion, not to sell her – he reached out to the airline but American wouldn’t provide him with any response, until media got involved. Eventually they provided the following statement,
“Our frontline team members are trained to navigate a variety of safety issues, including recognizing the potential signs of human trafficking. We strive to create a positive, welcoming environment for everyone who travels with us and apologize for any misunderstanding that may have occurred.”
Airline and hotel employees are taught to use their prejudices to spot and report human trafficking, and this often works out badly. Flight attendants are told they need to be on the lookout, and you have to sympathize with the position that puts them in. Imagine if they didn’t say something when they could have stopped a bad situation? That would haunt them. So better to raise the accusation or flag innocent people for law enforcement to sort out. And that gives you situations like,
- An African American social service worker was traveling with a white baby and accused of kidnapping by an American Airlines flight attendant as a result.
- Armed Port Authority police boarded an American Airlines plane at New York JFK because a flight attendant saw an Asian American woman follow her hispanic husband to the lavatory (he was feeling unwell) and saw that they shared an orange juice. The flight attendant called for a sex trafficking investigation. It found their drivers licenses displayed the same home address because they were married, just different races.
- Southwest Airlines demanded to see Facebook posts when a white mother checked in with her mixed-race son, claiming this was ‘federal law’.
This family is on a holiday weekend adventure to support @Kenzie4bs at @usabasketball U18 trials. 💙💛🐻 pic.twitter.com/cbAcRdKyhJ
— Lindsay Gottlieb (@CalCoachG) May 26, 2018
Hotel staff are trained by the Department of Homeland Security to report guests with too many used condoms in the trash, as well as:
- frequent use of the “Do Not Disturb” sign (you’re tired and don’t want to be bothered)
- guests who avert their eyes or don’t make eye contact (you’re tired and don’t want to be bothered)
- people with “lower quality clothing than companions” (no one ever accused me of fashion)
- people who have “suspicious tattoos” (which just means you’re from Austin or Portland)
- having multiple computers, cell phones, and other technology (you’re a blogger)
- “presence of photography equipment” (you’re a blogger)
- refusal of cleaning services for multiple days (you ‘made a green choice’ or ‘fear Covid’)
- rooms paid for with cash or a rechargeable credit card (you have to unload your gift card purchases somehow)
- guests with few personal possessions (you refuse to check a bag because you’re a frequent traveler)
See something, say something, when you’re encouraging amateurs to do it, leads to so many false positives that real cases of sex trafficking seem likely to get less attention. Employees think they are ‘trained’ when they’re really using their prejudices – in this case against a Hispanic man traveling with a teenage girl.
(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)
Hence the origin of my moniker on this website !
Agree it is better to error on the side of safety but also these examples clearly show lack of training and biases on the part of airline employees. Hopefully AA does something to make up for the inconvenience and embarrassment they suffered. Some would get an ambulance chaser to sue AA for damages and to hopefully implement better training of their employees but not sure if he has or not. If you have that info please update the story.
BTW, I have flown recently a good bit with my 19 year old daughter going back and forth to college. Half expect some airline employee to think I’m trafficing her even thought lifetime elite w 3 million miles on AA.
Has there ever been an correct detection of child trafficking by a flight attendent?
That’s why it’s better to not fly commercial. No one questions me when I have 3 underaged girls come on my jet.
Some FA elevate themselves to God level, profiling each passenger on board. Its more of a power trip and “ see.. I caught you” mindset than true concern. An apology from the FA is better than American doing this for her/him/they etc lol.
I work in emergency medicine and we have similar training. I have personally alerted law-enforcement a few times, and they have been vetted and released. My suspicion was not born out. However, recently at our hospital, one of my colleagues alerted, law-enforcement, and the child was a 17-year-old who then kidnapped several months ago.
While I understand that the father and daughter in this case, and in many other cases, were inconvenienced, scared, etc., the people who reported their suspicions were acting out of concern for the safety of the child or young person.
Unfortunately, many of the guidelines do tend to get mixed up with racial and societal biases. In the end, I believe it is better to err on the side of caution, as long as the actions are not being taken out of malice.
Funny how we break out the microscopes to find human trafficking on a commercial flight, but can’t seem to find it at the border where you could throw a rock in any direction and have it bounce off of one human trafficker on its way to hitting a second one.
@Rob: Exactly.
I experienced something similar at Canadian emigration. I was going to Toronto on business and took my then 15;year old daughter along to visit her friend and family. The immigration folk separated us and questioned her until they were satisfied that I was neither a trafficker or a divorced dad in a custody fight
A glorified waitress given judge, jury and executioner powers….what can go wrong?
They may have been on a dry run to test the security protocols in place to deal with this kind of situation. You can never be too sure. Flight attendants are the front line of defense and need to act decisively for the safety of all on board. Kudos to the flight attendant for thinking of the child’s welfare above everything.
@Rob you bring up a very good point.
@GB – love the spy novel!
The idea that the current crop of FAs around any airline has, in aggregate, any actual skill to identify human trafficking is laughable.
And that ridiculous response from AA only after media got involved would lead me to pursue potential legal remedies, not for personal enrichment, but to scare the shit out of whatever executive is in charge of that clearly trash training.
Union scum being union scum. Sue the sky waitress and the airline.
GB – STFU bootlicker.
Time to disband DHS, it is turning into a Stasi like organization.
Maybe if we stopped interfering into other countries, they wouldn’t “Hate us for our freedom” and DHS can be confined to the scrap heap of history.
A pipe dream I know
Ideas with good intentions often end up causing issues for innocent people. Having someone take a 30 minute video for training in child trafficking is hardly enough to be useful.
I’ve spent 20 years working for the federal government (out of 30+) and it is so frustrating dealing with the training that doesn’t do much of anything except CYA or rules that come up after someone does something wrong but really won’t prevent re-occurrence.
As a single guy when I was in my 20s/30s I purposely avoided doing any work with kids (such as helping with sports) because I realized someone could accuse me of something and it is often hard to prove what they said is wrong.
Society has always had its share of problems but things now seem especially broken.
This flight was ex-SEA so this sort of makes sense.
I just attended a briefing by the Bellevue Police Department unit that investigates human trafficking. Bellevue is the 2nd largest city in Washington and is just east of Seattle.
Det. Slusser briefed that 33% of all human trafficking in the US “touches” Seattle.
– major international airport with direct flights to regions that are prime sources of humans being trafficked (Central America, Asia)
– direct access to East/west interstate (I-90) and north/south interstate (I-5)
– a favorable political climate
– geographic isolation from nearest large city (Portland, then San Francisco)
– large, affluent client base (specifically mentioned the tech industry and MSFT and AMZN)
There are major “loops” or “circuits” that regularly rotate girls — it’s almost always girls being trafficked — through SEA, PDX, SLC, BOI, DEN, as far east as HOU.
The detective made a brutally logical point: you can only sell a fentanyl pill once, you can sell a human over and over.
You got that right, Jay Gee. I used to be proud of this country not having an internal and unfettered federal police department like some European states and many dictatorships did. No more. And when did the good old USA turn into a “homeland” anyway? That’s one term I’ll never use.
Homeland security isn’t training hotel staff to report people for just doing a thing on that list and you know it and you’re lying saying they are. Homeland security has shared a list of behaviors that they train hotel staff to watch out for IN COMBINATION. No one is getting reported for leaving their do not disturb sign out or having a lot of condoms in the trash and no one is asking anyone to report people for that.
But if you’re traveling with someone half your age, they never leave the room while lots of other people come in, you don’t want any housekeeping, AND there’s a lot of condoms in the trash, that’s trafficking and not a set of behaviors anyone reading this blog is at risk of accidentally exhibiting.
It’s ironic to blame the FA’s prejudice because of the subject’s ethnicity, when nothing in the article indicates the person’s ethnicity is the primary reason the FA called them out.
“Yeah, but, statistically *this* happens when *they* are involved so it’s more likely why” is the exact rationale used to validate every prejudice.
I don’t really care, and I’d rather they err in the side of caution. Like I tell the TSA when they’re apologizing for the hassle they’re causing me “I know it’s fundamentally because you’re trying to protect us all and I appreciate it”.
“WE apologize for any misunderstanding that may have occurred”
The May just gets under my skin
Reminds me of what our builders lawyers said to us when our brand new 3 million dollar building was leaking on every one of the 3 floors.To those that may be affected as 30 gallon garbage cans were collecting water almost everywhere from the ceilings on every floor
Haunting MAY?
Rob is 100% accurate. Thousands of sex traffickers at the border — and TOTAL silence and non-enforcement from the White House. At some point, you have to admit the truth: the Administration WANTS this to happen at the border. They are REWARDING it.
@Airflow I am laughing at your glorified waitress comment. Never thought of it that way but you’re exactly right.
I’ve been flying around the world for decades. Never in any of my travels have I identified a situation where I thought “human trafficking” was occurring (I have witnessed and identified several other crimes). This is why I’m always uncomfortable by the airport announcements I hear in some (liberal) cities to “watch out for human trafficking” and report it. I don’t think this is likely to stop much crime, but is likely to hassle innocent travellers. It’s kind of like telling passengers to “watch out for suspicious Muslims” — it’s not going to produce the result you’re looking for.
@L3 and @Rob, yes, 100%
The only good thing about this story is that it is not accompanied by the often used excuse for corporate or law enforcement overrreach: .”.. An abundance of caution.” (retching and vomiting noises off, stage left).
OK, so let’s see. Both the father and daughter were detained, presumably against their will on the suspicion of a safety-trained waiter or waitress? A fair question is at what point to peoples’ rights trump fears for “the children”.
Unlike other posters, I hope he sues. Bigly. It would be really interesting in discovery depositions to explore 1) any racial prejudice and 2) what exactly the child told the FA and why they persisted in having the father and daughter dragged off. I’ll warrant there’s an interesting story under all this.
In closing, having already asked what else we’re supposed to give up for “the children”. I agree that the vulnerable in our society deserve protection but in that case, how is it our elders get but a scintilla of the consideration we’re supposed to give ankle biters?
If you really want to know what I think, search George Carlin and Children or Child Worship on YT. I did not care for Mr. Carlin when he was alive. It is almost embarrassing to find that I now agree w/him.
I’d rather see some false positives than miss some young woman being sold into sex slavery. It needs to be done discreetly and efficiently, but answering a few questions pales in comparison to letting someone get away with murder. I’m all for the best training possible.
Once again I love the comments. Any headline with the words Flight Attendants brings out all the ignorant wanna be’s. Yawn. Off to Rome.
“Imagine if they didn’t say something when they could have stopped a bad situation? That would haunt them. So better to raise the accusation or flag innocent people”
I completely agree. I think the only safe course of action is assume all passengers are sex traffickers and, simultaneously, sex trafficking victims.
Interrogation should be mandatory upon deplaning. All passengers not able to prove their innocence should be incarcerated until a jury trial.
Jeff , Dave’s and Apple – suck off, you boot licking scum.
@L3- Well, not a flight attendant, but a ticket agent at AA in SMF in 2018 who was suspicious and her instinct was right. She saved 2 teenage girls. The story can be Googled. So, yes, the training does pay off at times but I have to be concerned that it can cause unbelievable grief for someone who is falsely accused.
Well, nothing new, AA FAs are the scumbags of the world working for a scumbag airline because the CEO is the king of scumbags. It all comes from the head, always.
Until the entire executive team of AA is fired and a new team creates a new culture and new rules, AA is an absolutely no go airline, period.
Also, for the fascist FA apologetics people in this thread, wake up!
Sex trafficking organizations are extremely powerful and well-organized groups, the dumb AA FAs are not going to stop them or notice them!!
As Gary called it previously, the TSA and all those FA fascists are all part of a Security Theatre that is always annoying and mostly useless!
Well Mike, you’re just a real peach dear aren’t you? Please tell me that you don’t even live on the same continent as me and my family. Scary!
@Mile- You are really scary. I hope I’m never on a flight with you- I consider you a threat. I can only imagine with which presidential candidate you affiliate.
One has to wonder how the flight attendant’s conversation with the daughter didn’t clear matters up immediately. “I’m traveling with my dad to my sister’s graduation” … OMG call the cops!
@Mike I agree completely
@flyer1 is the biggest hypocrite. Past posts are full of hatred and disdain.
@Steve Smith, I know you agree with Mike and I’m sure your mommy must be quite proud of her little boy. I’d be afraid of you two being in the same room together. It wouldn’t be pretty.
@Kiki or should I actually call you Loretta? Talk about hatred. The hatred that is spewed in these comment sections is just terrible. I don’t know how these people were raised but it definitely wasn’t great parenting.
@JimC: Not on Google. Never happened.
@L3- apparently you don’t know how to do a Google search. There must be 10 links to articles, nationwide, about the AA agent at SMF being called a hero. . Here are a few. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to say “never happened”. Apology please.
https://www.today.com/news/american-airlines-ticket-agent-saves-teens-trafficking-t123484
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Human-trafficking-Sacramento-American-Airlines-12623592.php
https://abc13.com/american-airlines-ticketing-agent-saves-two-girls-from-human-trafficking-denice-miracle/3086779/
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/airline-ticket-agent-saved-teen-girls-human-trafficking-article-1.3829623
https://nypost.com/2018/02/19/american-ticket-agent-saves-teens-from-human-trafficking/
@JimC: No. You claimed, but did not produce the evidence (bad debate form). Now you have been induced to produce the evidence. Thank me for helping you improve your debate success! -:)
There’s a loon in every crowd.
@dlyer1 Look in the mirror and that is where you see a really crazy scary person. If you were off to Rome, you would not be posting within 10 hours.
@flyer1 One hour of video training makes FA’s experts on profiling. LOL
This could be SO easily handled if it were an international flight. You just pull the family aside for an extremely invasive secondary screening as part of the immigration/customs process, where asking all of the annoying personal questions could establish that they were legitimate travelers and not involved in sex trafficking, and nobody would think it was anything other than a random check or that they somehow accidentally triggered it by getting one second too much attention by the overweight customs puppy (like the one that was REALLY interested in our bag full of chocolate and tea)
Are they checking bags? Easy enough. Just pull one of their checked bags and when it doesn’t hit baggage claim, you can ask them for all their personal information as part of a claims process and then you can “find” the bag last minute and make things all better.
@Flyer1 first of all don’t call me a little boy I might very well be older than you. Now as for your one comment about so much hatred in the comments section. Well sometimes the truth is terrible perhaps you’re one of those pansies that prefers a good lie over the truth
@airflow There is a difference in instinct that something is not right and a glorified sky waitress or hotel clerk that believe they are experts in profiling after watching a video for an hour. Is every father/daughter or mother/son traveling together suddenly “traffickers” and should be subjected to a probe without cause?
If the father went to the lavatory and left his daughter alone then obviously it did fit the profile of a trafficker. It sounds like some power hungry flight attendants that thought they had a criminal degree.
This is similar to flyer1 claims she is a fa and calls everyone a name or tells them they must be someone else. This is the type of loon that should not be working for an airline and fired immediately.
@Kiki, have you heard of commuting? @Kiki, tell me the training an ER physician gets in human trafficking. They are also required to report.
We get it. You hate flight attendants. Don’t know why because I’ve never walked in your shoes. Happy Mother’s Day.