A woman from Fort Worth who says that she was sexually assaulted while she worked as a flight attendant for American Airlines sent a letter to the carrier’s CEO on Wednesday, urging him to “protect the women and men who work for [him].”
After working for the airline for 30 years, Kimberly Goesling, 52, announced in a letter that she would be retiring. She filed a lawsuit in January 2020 against American Airlines and celebrity chef Mark Sargeant, who she alleges sexually assaulted her while they were on a work trip in 2018.
“Here is the real truth,” wrote Goesling in the letter. “I shouldn’t be the one who has to leave. It should be you that left long before now, you and every other manager and individual at American who played a role in making the company’s response to my sexual assault yet another attack on me and my family.”
In 2018, Goesling and Sargeant were sent on a work trip to Germany, where the manager allegedly got drunk and made advances towards her. Goesling says she left the bar and went to her room. According to the lawsuit, American Airlines employees gave Sargeant her hotel room number, where he forced his way in and sexually assaulted her.
In her letter addressed to CEO Doug Parker, she says she was removed from her top position because management questioned her story. She also says that management promised to pay for her treatment after her assault, promised her time away for the treatment, and pledged not to retaliate against her. Goesling writes that all those promises were broken.
“You should be ashamed,” Goesling wrote, addressing Parker. “But I believe you feel no shame nor, somehow, any responsibility for having hired the man who attacked me. Because I feel responsibility for the men and women who will remain behind at American Airlines when I leave, I am passing along a short list of things you and the airline need to do differently to protect the women and men that work for you.”
In the letter, Goesling urges the company to follow its standards of business conduct and recommends the company provide proper training to its management on how to treat employees who are victims of sexual assault.
“Please take care of my passengers and my colleagues,” she said. “Please treat them better than you have me.”