US Airways and a regional affiliate are being sued by a couple from Connecticut for allowing their 14-year-old daughter to fly with a California man who has since been charged with kidnapping.
US Airways and its affiliate Piedmont Airlines have been accused of negligence and inflicting emotional distress on the girl’s parents.
Nathan Salas, 29 of Merced, California met the girl at her Connecticut home on August 19 and flew with her to Sacramento, where he was arrested.
The girl was picked up by police and returned to her home unharmed.
Salas is currently being held on $250,000 bail in Connecticut on kidnapping and child endangerment charges.
Salas had earlier met the girl on a website in April and developed a "dating type relationship" with her, a police spokesman said.
According to the federal lawsuit, the airlines "failed to use reasonable pre-embarkation safeguards on three occasions to protect against the use of its services by a customer to abduct a child."
The suit alleges US Airways allowed Salas to buy a ticket for the girl using her social security card, which does not have a photograph.
The couple have not been named to protect the identity of their daughter.
