“30 minutes of hell” endured by a 13-year-old girl flying as an unaccompanied minor as a fellow passenger groped her.

For the 13-year-old girl travelling unaccompanied on the four-hour flight it began the moment he sat down.

He leaning into her, muttered f**k and attempted to make small talk. He pretended to read a magazine and with each page he turned he allegedly used his hand to brush against her.

He dropped the magazine between her legs and reached down to get it.

For half an hour he allegedly touched and groped the young teenager.

The flight attendant stated in a criminal complaint against Camp that she saw “a single tear coming down the victim’s cheek.” Via IStock.

The young girl was flying home after visiting her father, as an unaccompanied minor she boarded the flight first.

A man, wearing headphones and, according to reports talking to himself, sat down in his assigned seat, 21-B, the one right next to the girl.

The flags should have gone up when he first boarded and flight attendants offered him an alternative seat on the half empty flight, one with more room and not right next to an unaccompanied young girl.

But he declined.

“I’m fine where I am,” he said.

When a flight attendant returned for the drink service a half hour later, she realised exactly why Chad Cameron Camp, 26, had wanted to remain there.

She claims his hand was in the teenager’s crotch.

And the girl..

The flight attendant stated in a criminal complaint against Camp that she saw “a single tear coming down the victim’s cheek.”

The girl had been silent for 30 minutes enduring “hell.”

The alleged abuse took place last week on an American Airlines flight from Dallas, Texas, to Portland, Oregon.

When the flight attendant saw what was going on she moved Camp to a seat down the back of the plane and the girl to a seat further up the front where flight attendants could keep an eye on her.

The Washington Post reports that when Camp exited the plane, he was arrested and charged with abusive sexual contact.

The teenager’s lawyer is suing the airline saying that American Airlines failed to protect its vulnerable passenger.

“This was 30 minutes of hell for this young lady,” said Brent Goodfellow.

According to The Washington Post Goodfellow “scoffed” at the idea the girl was “saved” by a flight attendant.

“If I have my tray table down or my seat back two inches during the improper time, those guys are going to be on me immediately,” he said.

“This girl got abused for 30 minutes and no one was to be found.”

Goodfellow said flight attendants should have realised there was a problem when Camp declined to move to an empty row.

“That’s a big red flag. Anybody who has ever flown more than a couple of hours and knows that if there is any empty seat that is not the middle seat, of course they are going to move.”

“She was frightened and trapped.” Via IStock.

The complainant states:

“Each time he turned the page he used his elbow to brush up against the victim’s shoulder and upper arm area. The victim attempted to move away from Camp’s physical contact, and each time she withdrew, he would laugh.

After finishing with the magazine, Camp leaned toward the victim to place the magazine in the seat pocket in front of the victim. Camp instead dropped the magazine on the victim’s shoes.”

It says that Camp leaned across the girl putting his face just inches from hers and that  when she declined Camp’s offer to share his headphones, he allegedly threw them in her lap.

The 26-year-old “repeatedly placed his hand on the girl’s knee and upper thigh”.

“She had to push his hand off of her and cross her legs.”

“What are you doing?” she asked him. But Camp just laughed and did it again.

“She was frightened and trapped” the complaint against the airline states.

Her lawyer has accused the airline of “extorting” separated families by charging them  $300 extra to let unaccompanied minors travel without providing any “meaningful protection”.

The teenager’s lawyer is suing the airline saying that American Airlines failed to protect its vulnerable passenger. Via IStock.

It is not the first time a complaint like this has been heard.

A similar case is currently before another court in the US where a man was accused in 2015 of groping an unaccompanied girl aboard an American Airlines flight from New York to Chicago.

Mohammad Asif Chaudhry, 57, allegedly moved from his assigned seat to sit next to the girl, who was between 12 and 16 years of age.

A lawsuit states that the girl woke up from a nap to find the Chaudhry, a doctor, inappropriately touching her reports The Chicago Tribune.

“I can’t move cause the seat belt sign is on and I want to get away,” the girl said in texts to her mother.

“Mommy, I’m scared.”

And in 1990, a Michigan man was arrested for allegedly fondling a nine-year-old girl who was traveling with her seven-year-old sister aboard a Northwest Airlines flight.

This alleged incident happened during an overnight flight when the lights were dimmed.

The lawyer for the young girl allegedly groped last week is calling a change in policy about where unaccompanied minors sit.

It’s a dilemma we in Australia are familiar with.

In 2012, Johnny McGirr, a 33-year-old firefighter from Sydney, was told to move seats by a Virgin flight attendant. When asked why, the flight attendant cited a policy where men cannot sit next to unaccompanied minors. The attendant then asked a female passenger, "Can you please sit in this seat because he is not allowed to sit next to minors."

A public backlash prompted Virgin Australia to review its policy.

Virgin told him it was "airline policy." Via Twitter.

Other airlines, like British Airlines have also change their policy to allow men to sit next to unaccompanied minors after similar cases.

Several children’s charities said the policy was absurd. Michele Elliott, director of the children's charity Kidscape stated that the rule "is utterly absurd. It brands all men as potential sex offenders."

Goodfellow told The Washington Post he doesn’t think airlines necessarily need to revert to bans on men sitting next to unaccompanied minors but that unaccompanied minors should be put in aisle seats in front or rear rows, where they are closest to and most easily seen by flight attendants and whenever possible, have an empty seat next to them for protection, he said.

Camp appeared in court on Monday where he pleaded not guilty reports Sky News. 

Meanwhile the 13-year-old girl is, according to her lawyers, shaken refusing to allow her mother or anyone to touch her and vowing never to fly on an airplane again.

For help: Lifeline 13 11 14. Kid's Helpline: 1800 55 1800. DV and Sexual Abuse hotline 27/4: 1800 737 732