IN SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials say that a former captain of the California Highway Patrol was charged with slapping a male flight attendant on a cross-country flight to Los Angeles. The charge came from a federal grand jury.
It was the second time in the past few weeks that claims of sexual abuse on planes came to light. The FBI says the issue is getting worse, especially on long trips that last more than one night.
Dennis Wally Woodbury, 49, of Azusa, California, was charged with one count of sex abuse on Thursday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Woodbury hit the flight attendant as he walked by while getting food trays on a JetBlue Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Los Angeles International Airport on April 13. Woodbury had been drinking a lot a day before the trip.
According to the prosecutors, Woodbury started acting badly as soon as he got on the plane. Before the plane took off, he showed another male flight attendant a picture of a dog with sexual images in the background and told him he should go on a cruise with him. Court records show that Woodbury later on the flight went to the front kitchen of the plane and pulled down his pants, showing the flight attendant his private parts.
Not long after that, Woodbury asked the same flight attendant for wine. When the worker told him he could only have a nonalcoholic drink, Woodbury again took off his pants and showed himself, according to authorities.
Woodbury was arrested when the plane arrived in Los Angeles. He appeared in federal court for the first time last month and is now free on a $50,000 bond. The court date for his arraignment is May 12.
A phone number given for Woodbury was not working. The Associated Press sent an email to his lawyer asking for a response, but he didn’t answer right away.
A woman from Northern California said she was sexually assaulted in 2024 on an overnight flight from San Francisco to Dallas. This week, her lawyers stated that they were suing American Airlines. The woman from Northern California sued the airline and said they knew about the sexual assault of another female passenger on a trip in 2023. The man was charged by federal officials in March. The lawsuit also said that he had a number of other similar charges filed against him.
According to the FBI, they looked into 96 claims of sexual attacks on U.S. flights in 2023. These assaults included unwanted touching. They usually attack people in the middle or window seats who are sleeping and wearing a blanket or jacket, the FBI said. The attacks happen on long-haul planes when it’s dark inside. Police who have heard of these kinds of crimes often say that they woke up to find their seatmate’s hands in their clothes.
The agency said it is especially important to report the crime right away because it is harder to look into crimes that happen on airplanes after days or even hours have passed.