Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man was charged this week with propositioning and sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl on a plane during a flight to Utah.
Hans Loudermilk, 67, of Oceanside, Calif., was indicted Wednesday on two counts: sex abuse of a minor on an airplane and a separate charge of sex abuse on an airplane.
On Monday, Loudermilk took a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and asked a 15-year-old if she would move to the middle seat. He then sat next to her, according to the charges filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
Once the flight took off, their conversation "turned sexual in nature," the charges state. About 25 minutes before landing, Loudermilk told the girl he could "teach her things sexually that boys her age could not" and told her several times she should drive off with him because in Utah they could be legally married at her age, the indictment states.
During this discussion, "Loudermilk was moving in closer and started touching the chin of (the victim)," prosecutors wrote. The touching progressed to rubbing her leg and upper thigh, court documents state. Once the plane landed, the teen approached the first Transportation Security Administration officer she could find. During this time, investigators say Loudermilk ducked into a gift shop and took off the tan shirt he was wearing and replaced it with a black jacket.
Loudermilk was arrested and placed in the Salt Lake County Jail on a hold for U.S. marshals.
