Delta Air Lines terminated a new-hire flight attendant who spoke out about a senior colleague after he allegedly sexually assaulted the new recruit and several other male crew members at a graduation ceremony for the Atlanta-based carrier.
The accused flight attendant was seemingly able to get away with sexually assaulting multiple crew members because he would then offer his victims the chance to appear in various marketing campaigns, including Delta’s safety videos.
The extraordinary allegations have come to light in a new lawsuit against the airline, which was filed in a Seattle district court by the ex-flight attendant who publicly shamed the suspect in a semi-public Facebook post.
Aryasp Nejat was hired by Delta as a flight attendant in May 2023 and after completing nearly two months of intensive training, Nejat and his classmates attended what should have been a joyous graduation ceremony at Delta’s campus in Atlanta.
Along with the customary moments in a flight attendant graduation ceremony, like the new-hire crew members getting their uniform ‘wings’ for the first time, Delta also invited along a senior flight attendant to give the newbies a speech on why they shouldn’t support a unionization campaign.
Delta is famously the only major US airline to not have a unionized flight attendant workforce despite various attempts by several major unions including the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) which represents crew members at a slew of carriers, including United and Alaska Airlines.
The AFA is once again trying to drum up support for a unionization drive amongst Delta’s flight attendants and this senior crew member was allegedly invited by airline management to explain why he didn’t think the new recruits should sign a union card.
After the speech, this senior flight attendant carried out what was described as a uniform inspection but allegedly turned into a “non-consensual, sexually assaulting touching” of Nejat which involved him reaching inside Nejat’s pants close to his genitals and then rubbing his chest.
The suspect is also accused of sexually assaulting several other male flight attendants at the same graduation ceremony.
Nejat says he didn’t report the suspect because he seemed to be “favored by Delta management,” but in April 2024, Nejat brought the issue up in a semi-private Facebook group for flight attendants.
Responding to a post about Delta’s latest campaign to dissuade flight attendants from signing union cards, Nejat responded under a pseudonym: “They yell at us and call us ungrateful pigs when we’re not pissing out pants from excitement that we got $1 – $2 raises.”
Another crew member then made a comment about the senior Delta flight attendant who has the power to choose which crew members will appear in the next safety video.
Nejat replied that the suspect “sexually harasses attractive male FAs [flight attendants via quid pro quo agreements to them in safety videos and promotional materials.”
Several days later, Nejat noticed that the administrators of the Facebook group had removed his comments, so he decided to reply using his real name. This time, Nejat didn’t mention the allegations of sexual assault but complained that Delta had created a “hostile work environment” over its campaign to stop potential unionization.
Delta quickly found out about Nejat’s Facebook posts and suspended him without pay while it carried out an investigation. Nejat admitted that he had made the posts under an alias but reported the senior flight attendant for sexual assault to his managers.
Several months later, Delta wrapped up its investigation by terminating Nejat, while the sexual assault suspect continues to work for the airline, the lawsuit alleges.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Nejat believe Delta terminated their client because he made pro-union, anti-sexual harassment posts on social media, which could amount to retaliation under the Railway Labor Act.
The lawsuit also accuses Delta of sexual harassment as the airline put the suspect in a position of power that allowed him to commit his alleged crimes on his victims.
As Nejat was based out of Seattle Tacoma International Airport, he has asked a Washington state court to rule in his favor and order Delta to rehire him as a flight attendant.
Delta is yet to respond to the lawsuit.
In 2018, the airline introduced a new social media policy that restricts all employees from publishing any post that could be deemed “inappropriate” or that has the “ability to harm Delta.”
The policy also prohibits employees from making pro-union posts, noting that concerns about “pay, job duties, coworkers, issues with company policy, or general criticisms about Delta are best directed to your manager.”
in 2022, Delta faced a lawsuit from a flight attendant who was sacked for sharing a cartoon of Donald Trump wearing a KKK hood on Facebook.
At the time, a Delta spokesperson defended its strict social media policy, saying: “When Delta employees intermix Delta’s brand with conduct or content that does not reflect our values of professionalism, inclusion and respect, that conduct can result in discipline or termination.”
