Norton to Offer Her Bill to Require FAA to Keep Statistics on Sexual Assaults on Airplanes as an Amendment, Tomorrow

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today filed her bill to require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to collect and maintain data on sexual assaults that occur on airplanes as an amendment to H.R. 4156, the Transparent Airfares Act, and intends to offer it as an amendment at the Committee markup of H.R. 4156 tomorrow, April 9, 2014, at 10:00 a.m., in 2167 Rayburn House Office Building.

Norton’s bill, which she first introduced last month, followed news reports in February highlighting a surge in sexual assaults on commercial airplanes en route to Washington, D.C.-area airports and that there are no statistics of such assaults kept by any federal agency. A follow-up investigation by Norton’s office confirmed that no statistics of such assaults are collected and maintained, including by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is tasked with investigating crimes aboard commercial flights. The bill includes domestic and international flights that land in or depart from the U.S. The data would be made accessible to the public through the FAA’s website. Norton will also continue looking into how passengers can be informed of how to alert authorities if they have been assaulted.

“The underlying bill provides an opportunity to move this vital legislation to require the FAA to keep real-time statistics and documentation on sexual assaults on airplanes,” said Norton. “Without statistics, we cannot gain either the necessary information to prosecute these crimes or the insights to help eliminate them and improve complicated onboard sexual assault investigations by the FBI. Law enforcement and the flying public deserve to have access to data on sexual assaults that occur aboard planes so that we can work towards preventing these devastating crimes.”

Published: April 8, 2014