Indian American Alleged Serial Offender at the Center of Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against American Airlines
- According to court documents, Barbara Morgan alleges she was sexually assaulted by fellow passenger Cherian Abraham, 54, during the overnight flight.
A California woman has filed a federal lawsuit against American Airlines, claiming the carrier failed to protect her from a passenger who allegedly sexually assaulted her during a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Dallas in April 2024, despite the airline reportedly being aware of previous similar incidents involving the same man.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Barbara Morgan alleges she was sexually assaulted by fellow passenger Cherian Abraham, 54, during the overnight flight. The lawsuit claims that Abraham, a senior account director at Nokia, deliberately touched Morgan’s breasts by rubbing his arm against her body, placed his hand on her upper thigh, and then fondled her genitals, San Francisco Standard reported.
The lawsuit states that when Morgan reported the incident to an American Airlines gate agent after landing, she was unaware that Abraham had been accused of groping another woman in a “nearly identical assault months earlier,” the Standard said. Federal investigators later discovered that Abraham allegedly went on to assault a third woman on another American Airlines flight a year after Morgan’s incident, despite the airline having been notified about the previous cases.
Morgan’s legal team argues that the assault “was not an isolated incident” but rather “the direct result of a culture at American Airlines that enables sexual predators, silences survivors, and treats safety warnings as public relations problems rather than urgent threats.”
The lawsuit further alleges that American Airlines was negligent because flight attendants rarely patrolled the cabin during the flight and failed to respond when Morgan shouted at Abraham to “stop.” Furthermore, Morgan claims an airline agent engaged in “victim-blaming” by questioning why she didn’t do more to complain during the flight and instructed her to file an online complaint rather than contacting law enforcement, news reports said.
Abraham has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. Court documents indicate he previously told investigators that any physical contact was accidental.
Morgan stated in the lawsuit that she “froze” during the incident, fearing potential retaliation from Abraham or angering other passengers if the flight were diverted (San Francisco Standard, New York Post). After multiple attempts to get a response from American Airlines, Morgan claims a security representative from the airline “shifted blame onto her for not reporting it while still in the air.”
The New York Post reports that Morgan was traveling to Dallas to visit her son and celebrate his new job and home when the alleged assault occurred.
According to federal investigators, Abraham was eventually arrested in March 2025 and charged with abusive sexual contact after allegedly groping a woman’s breast twice during American Airlines Flight 2076 on March 18. The investigation uncovered a pattern of similar behavior, including the incident involving Morgan in April 2024 and another alleged groping on a Minneapolis flight in October 2023.
Abraham has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. Court documents indicate he previously told investigators that any physical contact was accidental.
An American Airlines spokesperson stated: “The safety of our customers and team members is our highest priority. We take this matter very seriously and are working closely with law enforcement on its investigation.” The airline confirmed that Abraham has been banned from flying with the company following his March arrest but did not respond to questions about why he hadn’t been banned after the first two reported incidents.
Morgan’s lawsuit highlights other alleged failures by American Airlines to adequately respond to sexual assault allegations on its planes, including a 2017 incident where a woman claimed she was raped by a man about whom she had previously alerted flight attendants, and a 2024 incident in which a woman reported a man openly masturbated next to her on a flight.
The lawsuit claims the alleged assault violated Morgan’s “bodily and sexual autonomy, stripped her of dignity, and robbed her of a basic sense of safety.” Morgan is seeking damages from both American Airlines and Abraham.