A luxury brand CEO said she was forced to sit next to a man who masturbated for an hour on an American Airlines flight to Milan, a lawsuit claimed. 

Neel Elsherif, a founder of three companies, is suing American Airlines after she claimed to have endured the ‘grotesque’ experience while flying from New York to Milan on May 27, 2024. 

The CEO was seated in a premium economy seat that cost her $3,000, according to the complaint viewed by DailyMail.com. 

An allegedly intoxicated man sitting next to the Mela founder masturbated for approximately 60 minutes with no intervention from the flight attendant, who allegedly told Elsherif: ‘Men just do stuff like that,’ a complaint said.

The flight attendant allegedly told Elsherif that her own husband did ‘stuff like that,’ quite to Elsherif’s shock as she took it as the employee ‘implying that, as a woman, Plaintiff was expected to endure such grotesque misconduct.’ 

She claimed the airline failed to intervene and protect her, nor was the man asked to move seats, the complaint alleged. 

Elsherif also accused the major airline of racism, claiming in the complaint that American Airlines did not garnered her ‘suffering as unworthy of redress because the male passenger is white and the Plaintiff is not.’ 

‘Upon information and belief, because Plaintiff is an Arab woman, the Flight Attendant did not treat Plaintiff’s report of John Doe masturbating next to her as a sexual assault,’ the complaint read. 

Neel Elsherif, a founder of three companies, is suing American Airlines after she claimed to have endured the ‘grotesque’ experience of a man masturbating for an hour while flying from New York to Milan on May 27, 2024

An allegedly intoxicated man sitting next to the Mela founder masturbated for approximately 60 minutes with no intervention from the flight attendant, who allegedly told Elsherif: ‘Men just do stuff like that’ (pictured: stock image)

American Airlines told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘American strives to provide a positive experience to everyone who travels with us. We are reviewing the allegations of the complaint.’  

The Nile Hudson founder claimed to have suffered ‘severe and lasting emotional harm’ from the experience, enduring ‘severe anxiety, fear of flying, and emotional trauma,’ the complaint, filed on March 21, 2025, said. 

Elsherif said the airline had a ‘well-documented history of giving white passengers favorable treatment,’ especially intoxicated ones on long-haul flights when the ‘cabin is dark [and] the female victim is in the window seat.’ 

The entrepreneur was seated in 15C – a window seat – on the flight. She also ensured the flight attendant knew the pair were not together, as she had seen them arriving separately, the complaint said. 

Throughout the flight, the man had ‘multiple glasses of champagne’ and became ‘visibly intoxicated.’ 

As she was preparing to go to sleep after the meal service, she noticed the male passenger ‘holding his groin and rubbing his genitals over his pants’ in the dim cabin lights, the complaint said. 

She began to feel ‘extremely uncomfortable and helpless’ upon the realization and waited for a flight attendant to walk by. She did not press the call button to bring a flight attendant to her seat. 

Elsherif said she sat in ‘fear’ and ‘panic’ for roughly an hour and was scared to go to sleep or pretend to, dreading the man ‘may attempt to touch her.’ 

Elsherif also accused the major airline of racism, claiming in the complaint that American Airlines did not garnered her ‘suffering as unworthy of redress because the male passenger is white and the plaintiff is not.’ Elsherif is Arab 

After he finished, she managed to get out of her seat and went to tell a flight attendant about what happened. 

She claimed the flight attendant ‘dismissed’ her and said there was ‘nothing really that [she] can do’ except move Elsherif to a coach seat. 

The CEO said the flight attendant ‘outright refused’ to ask the man to move to coach instead of her. 

Elsherif eventually moved to seat 28H in economy. While sitting in the back of the plane, she allegedly observed the flight attendant continuing to give the man alcohol, the complaint stated. 

Due to the emotional side effects of the assault, Elsherif missed her work meeting upon landing. 

She allegedly reported the assault to the American Airline office at Milan Malpensa Airport, where an employee allegedly told her to ‘call the 1-800 number.’

She reported it again upon her arrival at JFK Airport in New York City and was once again told to call the 1-800 number. 

Elsherif claimed she did call the number and the company did not report the incident to law enforcement. Nor did they provide her the passenger’s name so she could.   

She is requesting a jury trial.