SALT LAKE CITY — An airline pilot was convicted this week of two counts of abusive sexual contact for groping a 14-year-old girl while he was a passenger on a flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City last year.
Michael Pascal, who has homes in Park City, Utah, and Texas, was found guilty Thursday by a jury after a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
The girl told investigators that she woke up from a nap on an Oct. 26 Delta Airlines flight and found Pascal’s hand under her, gripping her buttocks. She was sitting next to a window, and Pascal was in the middle seat.
Pascal, 45, who worked at the time as a pilot for a regional airline carrier that contracts with Delta, told investigators he fell asleep with his hands in his lap and doesn’t know how one ended up underneath the girl.
He could face up to five years in prison.
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