United Airlines paid her $75 ‘hush money’ after man masturbated next to her for hours, she says

One woman’s startling string of tweets detailing her experience while aboard a United Airlines flight has prompted an investigation into why airline officials didn’t do more to turn in an alleged in-flight masturbator to police.

Mikaela Dixon, 21, says she was aboard a United Airlines flight from Orange County, California, to Chicago with her boyfriend on Aug. 11 when the man seated on the aisle seat in her row quietly masturbated next to her for “hours.”

Dixon said she was horrified and “shook silently” in her seat after noticing what the man was doing, suffering a massive panic attack while her boyfriend slept in the window seat on her other side, according to a string of tweets detailing the incident.

“i couldn’t call an attendant over because he’s in the aisle seat and would’ve heard me reporting him,” she wrote in one of the tweets after she called police after the plane landed. “i sat there shaking until he got up to go to the bathroom as we landed. attendants came over, moved my seat, at this point the guy came back and knew what was happening.”

But Dixon is calling out United Airlines, too, after she says the airline did not do enough to see that the man was arrested. She said in another tweet that the airline gave her $75 in “hush money” to make up for her experience.

Flight attendants moved her to another seat only after the man got up from his seat as the plane was taxiing at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, according to her account. She said the man “BOLTED” from the flight and was initially detained at the airport, but was able to leave before police arrived.

United initially told BuzzFeed that airline officials were the ones who contacted Chicago police, according to the website. A spokesperson later clarified, though, that the flight crew aboard the California-to-Chicago flight, as well as the airline’s agent at the arrival gate, decided against it, according to Buzzfeed.

United is in the process of reviewing why those steps weren’t taken, the website reported.

The airline also issued a written statement to Fox News, confirming parts of Dixon’s account and stating that airline officials are “investigating the matter to learn more about what happened.”

“The safety and well-being of our customers is our top priority,” the statement continued. “Our customer was immediately moved to a different seat when the flight attendants were made aware of the issue and the aircraft was met by our security personnel. Although United Airlines, as a company, cannot press charges on our customers’ behalf, we will provide as much assistance as possible to law enforcement authorities should they investigate this matter further.”

But Dixon isn’t satisfied not knowing what happened to the man she says made the cross-country flight an hours-long nightmare.

“Basically United lied about everything, let the man go after a few questions, and refused to involve law enforcement until I called the cops myself and forced them to file a report w the FBI,” she tweeted.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 9:22 AM with the headline "United Airlines paid her $$75 ‘hush money’ after man masturbated next to her for hours, she says."