By JOHN SUAYAN
A Houston woman is suing a French airline after she was allegedly assaulted during an international flight two years ago.
Sana Krichen initiated legal action against Societe Air France in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas on June 16, asserting a fellow passenger aboard Air France Flight No. 1184 attacked her.
The lawsuit explains that Krichen, a graduate student, was flying Air France from Houston to Tunis, Tunisia, in early June 2013 to get married to her fiancé. She boarded AF1184 to Tunisia in Paris on June 15, 2013, and was assigned seat 23F, “a window seat located directly in front of her attacker.”
French authorities were transporting the passenger in question presumably back to Tunisia for extradition purposes. During the course of the flight the next day, recent court papers state, said passenger attacked Krichen “in her seat without warning or provocation.”
“Her attacker began beating her and thrashing her head back and forth while jerking her hair,” the original petition says. “After what seemed like an eternity, Ms. Krichen’s attacker was subdued and removed from the plane.”
Krichen sought medical attention after AF1184 landed. The purported assailant, whose name is not mentioned, is not a defendant in the case.
Consequently, the plaintiff seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
She is represented by attorney Richard A. Hinojosa of the law firm Hinojosa Law, PLLC in Houston.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:15-CV-1713