American Airlines attendant condemns CEO in scathing open letter after claiming she was forced out for reporting sex assault

Bosses were accused of inadequately protecting employees from abuse amid resignation of 52-year-old

A former American Airlines flight attendant has condemned the company’s CEO for allegedly failing to “protect the women and men who work for you”, after she was allegedly sexually assaulted at work.

Kimberely Goesling said in an open letter addressed to American Airlines CEO Doug Parker that “the real truth” was that she “shouldn’t be the one who has to leave”, announcing her resignation.

“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.”

“You should be ashamed,” Ms Goesling told the airline’s CEO. “But I believe you feel no shame nor, somehow, any responsibility for having hired the man who attacked me.”

“In what part of our training did it say it was okay to ask a sexual assault victim what she was wearing when the attack happened? This is what one of your own HR managers asked me.”

The letter was written on Wednesday, 10 months after a lawsuit was filed against American and celebrity chef Mark Sargeant by Ms Goesling, who says he sexually assaulted her while on a work trip. The lawsuit was filed in Texas’s Tarrant County in January.

Among the accusations in the lawsuit, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, are that American removed her from a senior position and retaliated for complaining about Mr Sargeant, who she says had a history of allegations against him.

The celebrity chef has rebuked the allegations and told Kent Online in May that he was “horrified” by his behaviour during the American Airlines work trip in 2018, and that he went to Ms Goesling’s “hotel room under the wrong impression [that] she was interested in me,” while drunk.

“I made clear that I was interested in her, including by attempting to kiss her. Ms Goesling said she was flattered but that she wasn’t interested,” he added.

Mr Sargeant also apologised for “the indignity of my behaviour that night, the dishonour to my wife and the lack of respect shown towards Ms Goesling,” after saying he “misread the situation”.

He has settled with Ms Goesling outside of court, it was reported.

Ms Goesling went as far as alleging that American Airlines bosses provided Mr Sargeant with her hotel room number that evening, and that she was discouraged from filing a complaint, according to court flings seen by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Independent has approached American Airlines and a representative for Mr Sargeant for comment.