‘Are You Sh*tting Me!’ Sexually Assaulted a Sleeping 18-Year-Old Girl, On a Flight, Ian Wagner Charged

INDIANAPOLIS, IN. — Ian Wagner, 38, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been charged with two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent exposure for an incident aboard a Frontier Airlines flight from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Denver, Colorado, on October 6, 2017, involving a victim who was asleep.

Wagner is being charged out of the District of Nebraska as the sexual contact began, continued, and was completed while the aircraft was in flight over the District of Nebraska.

According to the indictment, Wagner knowingly engaged in and caused sexual contact with the then 18-year-old female victim who was at the time “incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct and physically incapable of declining participation in, and communicating an unwillingness to engage in, the sexual contact.”

Wagner was arrested in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 4, 2020. An initial hearing was held on October 5, 2020 in the Northern District of Indiana in Fort Wayne.

Crimes aboard aircraft fall within the FBI’s jurisdiction, and in the case of in-flight sexual assaults, usually take the form of unwanted touching. Sexual assault aboard aircraft is a felony. Wagner faces up to three years’ imprisonment if convicted.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

If you think you are a victim of sexual assault aboard an aircraft, report the incident to your flight crew and to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI, or contact your local FBI office.

An indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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