United employee denies groping child on American Airlines flight to Charlotte
A United Airlines employee accused of grabbing a minor’s breast during an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Charlotte earlier this year denied the charges at a hearing in uptown’s federal court Tuesday.
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Court documents say the man, Syed Alam, intentionally touched, through the clothing, two victims’ breasts aboard American Airlines flight 1091 while it was flying from Dallas to the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport on Feb. 16. One victim was a child older than 12 but younger than 16.
Alam faces three charges: two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor. All are punishable by a maximum of two years in prison or a $250,000 fine.
United Airlines and American Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alam — who, according to his LinkedIn works as an aerospace engineer and aircraft tooling planner for United Airlines — was originally arrested in the Eastern District of Virginia in late July. There, the regional U.S. Attorney’s Office asked for Alam to be held in jail.
He stayed there for eight days before a magistrate judge released him on conditions that he not use any public transportation and not contact victims or anybody under 18 years old.
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In Charlotte on Tuesday, assistant U.S. attorney David Kelly told U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler that he would have normally asked for Alam to be detained but withheld that motion to be respectful of the Virginia judge’s ruling.
Keesler made his own motion, revising Alam’s release conditions and ordering that he continue to work or seek employment, not use drugs and not have a firearm.
Alam will return to Woodlands, Texas — a master-planned community north of Houston — as his case progresses in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. A next court date has not yet been set.
Alam’s attorney, Shaefer Shepard, did not object to any of the new conditions. Outside the first-floor courtroom, Shepard declined to comment to The Charlotte Observer.
“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” Keesler said before moving to the next case, “but bad behavior on airplanes — not a fan. He needs to comply.”
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This story was originally published September 8, 2026 at 12:45 PM.
