American Airlines employee ‘took a passenger’s number from her luggage tag and followed her onto a flight before bombarding her with more than 100 creepy text messages’
- Ashley Barno says the employee, identified only as Ahmad, explained he got her name, phone number and address from the information on her carry-on bag
- He then messaged her to say she was ‘gorgeous in her gray top’, a lawsuit claims
- The chilling messages go on to show how the worker joined her on her flight from San Diego’s International Airport to Chicago in April last year
- He told a worried Ashley he could get her free flights and access to lounges
- An American Airlines spokesman told the DailyMail.com they ‘takes the privacy and safety of our customers seriously’ and Ahmad no longer works for them
An American Airlines employee took a passenger’s number from her luggage tag, before following her onto a flight and bombarding her with more than 100 creepy text messages, according to a lawsuit.
Ashley Barno says the employee, identified only as Ahmad, told her she was ‘gorgeous in her gray top’ and explained he got her name, phone number and address from the information on her carry-on bag.
The chilling messages go on to show how the worker then joined her on her flight from San Diego’s International Airport to Chicago O’Hare in April last year, telling her: ‘I am on board now. Are you going to Chicago too??’
He is then said to have told a worried Ashley he could get her free flights and access to lounges, adding: ‘Will you join me? I really like you!! Come on join me!!’
Ashley Barno, pictured, says an American Airlines employee took her number from her luggage tag, before following her onto a flight and bombarding her with text messages
Ashley Barno says the employee, identified only as Ahmad, told her she was ‘gorgeous in her gray top’ and explained he got her name, phone number and address from the information on her carry-on bag. Some of the messages are pictured
The chilling messages go on to show how the worker then joined her on her flight from San Diego’s International Airport to Chicago O’Hare in April last year, telling her: ‘I am on board now. Are you going to Chicago too??’
The employee, who was not on duty for American at the time, had first messaged Ashley asking her how she was, the lawsuit claims. Replying to the unknown number Ashley said: ‘Sorry, I’m not sure who this is.’
Ashley told NBC San Diego: ‘The whole time I kept asking him, ‘Who are you? How do you know who I am? How’d you get my info.
‘Just knowing that he knew what I looked like, and that we were in an enclosed plane and that there’s no way out, like really, really scared me.
‘He had too much information on people, and what he did was not OK, and not acceptable at all.’
Ashley said she told Ahmad to leave her alone but he persisted, telling her: ‘Ok it’s up to you, but friendship with me will be very beneficial for you. I can always give you good seats, access to the lounges, and free drinks.’
She told a flight attendant about the messages and Ahmad was met at Chicago airport by company employees.
The flight attendant is said to have told Barno that it was not ‘the first time he’s done something like this’.
Ashley is now suing the airline for negligent hiring, sexual harassment and other alleged wrongdoing. The lawsuit alleges American Airlines ‘knew of its employee’s propensity to inappropriately contact its customers yet continued to retain him as an employee’.
‘American Airlines did not do a sufficient job in hiring and supervising employees to keep its customers safe from sexual harassment and stalking’, it adds.
A spokesman for the company said it ‘takes the privacy and safety of our customers seriously. The employee involved in the complaint is no longer employed at American Airlines’
Ashley added: ‘I got off the plane, I called my sister, and I was crying profusely because I just felt I mean, the best way to describe it was, I felt naked in a public place.’
An American Airlines spokesman told the DailyMail.com the company ‘takes the privacy and safety of our customers seriously’.
They added:’ We investigated the allegations and took appropriate action. The employee involved in the complaint is no longer employed at American Airlines.’