Elizabeth Smart said Thursday she was sexually assaulted during an airline flight last summer.
Smart, who was abducted and held captive for nine months when she was 14, told Gayle King on "CBS This Morning" an unidentified man molested her while she slept on a Delta flight last year to Utah.
“I had been asleep and, all of a sudden, I woke up because I felt someone’s hand rubbing in between my legs, on my inner thigh,” Smart said.
Credit: Rick Bowmer/AP
Credit: Rick Bowmer/AP
Delta confirmed to NBC News on Thursday that Smart reached out to the airline to inform it that another passenger had acted inappropriately. The airline said it does not tolerate passenger misconduct.
“We took the matter seriously and have continued to cooperate with Ms. Smart and the appropriate authorities as the matter is investigated,” Delta told NBC News.
Smart told NBC she was in complete shock and felt as if she should have been better able to respond given her history.
“I’m Elizabeth Smart,” she said. “I should know what to do, and at that moment, I didn’t know what to do.”
Smart is promoting a new self-defense program called “Smart Defense,” which she created after the alleged assault.
Smart said she expected the man to stop and apologize but that he said nothing to her. She added she initially was hesitant to speak out but felt it was important to share what happened.
In 2002, Smart was taken at knifepoint in her pajamas from her Salt Lake City bedroom by Brian David Mitchell, who kept her captive with his wife, Wanda Barzee.
Mitchell is serving a life sentence for kidnapping and raping Smart, while Barzee was released from prison in 2018 after being convicted for her role in the abduction.
Smart has become an outspoken advocate against child abductions. In 2011, she founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, dedicated to women and girls who face abuse and sexual violence.
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