Elizabeth Smart says she was sexually assaulted on a plane
Famed kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart was sexually assaulted last year while she was asleep on a flight, she revealed Thursday.
Smart — who was abducted and repeatedly raped when she was 14 — said she was on a Delta flight home to Salt Lake City when she was jolted awake by a man inappropriately touching her, “CBS This Morning” reported.
“I was shocked. The last time someone touched me without my say so was when I was kidnapped,” Smart told the program.
She said she wasn’t prepared to respond to what happened, despite traversing the country as an advocate for others’ safety.
“I did not know what to do,” she said. “I kept saying to myself, ‘You’re Elizabeth Smart; you should know what to do.’”
Smart said the man didn’t apologize to her, but she notified the airline about the incident.
“I don’t want him to be preying on other girls,” she said.
The experience prompted her to launch Smart Defense, a program for teaching women the skills to protect themselves, she said.
Delta didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.