More Hawaii Visitors Are Flying Overnight. Here’s What The FBI Says.

Picture the flight home from Hawaii. A single aisle, every seat taken, the cabin sealed full, and the lights lowered somewhere after the last cart rolls through early enough in the flight to offer passengers time for rest. For the next five hours, you are wedged shoulder to shoulder with strangers, a tired tin of crispy-tanned people together over open ocean.

We have spent the past two years describing this cabin as uncomfortable. The middle seats, the shrinking space, the full flights, the cattle-call boarding, and the red-eye return that so many Hawaii visitors can no longer avoid. It seems like every time we search for a Hawaii to mainland flight, it is now overnight. Well, it turns out discomfort is not the only thing these conditions can produce.

Last summer, we documented that on some nights, more than 55% of all transpacific and international departures from Honolulu push back between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. Daytime seats on many routes are scarce, more expensive, or both. Readers keep telling us they cannot find them, and we run into the same problem regularly ourselves. The overnight return is no longer one choice among many. For many travelers, it is the only realistic way off the island.

Here is the part nobody mentions at the time of booking.

A CBS News investigation this year found the FBI investigated more than 170 cases of passenger-on-passenger sexual assault on flights in 2024, up from about 130 the year before. That remains just a tiny fraction of the millions of people who fly without incident, but CBS also found the number is likely undercounted because many incidents continue to go unreported.

The FBI has been warning about this for years. These crimes often happen on long flights, when cabin lights are dimmed, passengers are asleep, and the person responsible is seated directly beside the victim. The bureau has described the enclosed aircraft cabin as a place where limited personal space can also make passengers more vulnerable.

Read that back in Hawaii terms. Long flight. Overnight. Lights off. Packed cabin. Sleeping passengers. A stranger only inches away. That is not some unusual rogue flight we’re describing. That is now the standard flight home from Hawaii for many visitors.

It is not hypothetical here either. Federal prosecutors said this week that a Kansas man was arrested after a Delta flight boarded in Kona and flew to Seattle, where he was accused of abusive sexual contact involving the woman seated beside him. He has been charged, not convicted, and we will leave the details there.

The case is not the entire story. The conditions are the story, and they were aboard that airplane the same way they are aboard so many Hawaii red-eyes now.

Why this may go unreported.

The underreporting is not hard to understand once you have sat in that cabin. People freeze. People are half asleep and unsure what just happened. People do not know who to tell in a dark cabin full of sleeping strangers, or they decide to handle it after landing, and then just want off the plane and gone.

Flight attendants cannot see everything that happens in a packed, dimmed cabin either. They may be trained to respond, but they first have to know that something actually happened. In a full aircraft, with bodies pressed together and most people asleep, silence can become part of this problem.

That is why the most useful advice is also the most immediate: tell a flight attendant right away. Do not wait because you are embarrassed, uncertain, or trying not to cause a scene. The situation was caused by someone else.

What to do if something does happen.

Also, ask to be moved to another seat or another part of the aircraft, and keep asking if the first answer is no. The crew can notify the cockpit, the airline, and law enforcement ahead of landing.

These are federal crimes. The FBI investigates sexual assault aboard aircraft, and cases can be handled after the plane lands because flights touching U.S. soil fall under federal jurisdiction. If the incident was not reported in the air, reporting after landing is still important.

The crew may be able to preserve the seat map, passenger manifest, timing, and any witness information. That becomes harder once everyone leaves the aircraft and scatters into the terminal, but it is not impossible. The most important point is not to talk yourself out of reporting because you are unsure whether anyone will believe you.

What Hawaii travelers should consider.

Obviously, none of this implies that Hawaii red-eyes are dangerous. The overwhelming majority of flights are uneventful, and most people will fly to and from Hawaii their entire lives without ever seeing anything like this.

What is true is narrower yet still worth saying plainly. The conditions the FBI has flagged as higher risk are now a part of the return flight that many Hawaii visitors cannot avoid. Long overnight flight, low lights, full cabin, sleeping passengers, and strangers seated inches apart.

The FBI is warning about that same cabin for a very different reason. And yes, both things are true at once.

We’re telling you the flight home from Hawaii has changed, and knowing what to do if something ever goes wrong is worth carrying on board the way you carry your ID. You will almost certainly never need it, but if you do, the time to act is in the air.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7 at 800-656-4673.

Have you ever witnessed anything like this on an overnight flight to Hawaii, or had to report it? Tell us how the crew handled it.

By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.

Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →