Off-duty cops and flight attendants were forced to restrain a passenger on a jumpseat after he allegedly sexually assaulted his seatmate and then threatened to fight other passengers on a recent Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage, newly released court documents reveal.
Adam David Seymour, 37, of Seattle, has been indicted by a grand jury of one count of assault with intent to commit abusive sexual contact and two counts of simple assault on an airplane.
If found guilty, Seymour faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment for the sexual assault charge and six months in prison for each count of simple assault.
Court documents filed in an Alaska district court allege that Seymour drank hand sanitizer from a bottle, rubbed a female passenger’s thighs and patted her groin before lighting a cigarette and insinuating that everyone was going to die in a plane crash.
When the first victim finally managed to get help and was switched to a new seat, Seymour allegedly tried to pick a fight with another passenger before a pair of off-duty cops and flight attendants restrained him in plastic ‘flexicuffs’ and moved him to a flight attendant jumpseat.
The disturbing incident occurred on April 5 aboard Alaska flight AS49 from Seattle to Anchorage, and although Seymour appeared “friendly at first”, the victim says his behavior changed after he drank two Jack Daniels with coke that the flight attendants served him.
The victim, who was stuck in a middle seat with Seymour blocking her in the aisle seat, says he began to rub her lower thigh and knee and tried to rest his head on her shoulder. He then made multiple comments about her sexuality, saying she looked like a lesbian and talking about licking her “down there”.
Fearing that reacting to his comments would “trigger” him, the victim tried to ignore Seymour but he then insinuated that the plane was going to crash and tapped her “multiple times” directly over her genitals.
The victim turned away from Seymour, but a few moments later, she heard the sound of sparking and turned around to see him holding a lit lighter and cigarette.
To get help, the victim wrote a message on her phone and passed it through to the people sitting directly in front of her – they happened to be off-duty police officers.
The off-duty cops alerted flight attendants who swiftly moved the victim to another seat. Seymour, however, allegedly moved his attention to the passenger sitting in the window seat and told him that he wanted to fight him and that he would kill him.
Other passengers described Seymour as being “extremely intoxicated”.
At this point, the off-duty police officers helped flight attendants restrain Seymour in flexicuffs and move him away from other passengers onto a jumpseat. Seymour, however, managed to break free from the cuffs and a third set of cuffs had to be used to properly restrain him.
The flight carried onto Anchorage where Seymour was taken into custody by local law enforcement. His hands were swabbed for the presence of controlled substances and Cocaine was detected.
Seymour will be formally arraigned on Thursday afternoon.
