Airline passenger sexually assaults sleeping 18-year-old on Indiana flight, feds say

An airline passenger is accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping 18-year-old on a plane, authorities say.

Ian Wagner, 38, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is charged with sexual assault and indecent exposure during a Frontier Airlines flight from Indiana to Colorado in 2017, according to an FBI news release Wednesday. He was arrested Sunday.

Wagner is accused of touching the inner thigh of the teen while she slept. The FBI says she was “incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct and physically incapable of declining participation in, and communicating an unwillingness to engage in, the sexual contact.”

Wagner is also accused of exposing himself and masturbating on the plane, according to court documents.

Wagner could be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted. He’s being charged in Nebraska federal court because the airplane was in flight over the state at the time of the sexual assault, authorities say.

“Crimes aboard aircraft fall within the FBI’s jurisdiction, and in the case of in-flight sexual assaults, usually take the form of unwanted touching,” the news release says.

This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Airline passenger sexually assaults sleeping 18-year-old on Indiana flight, feds say."