Va. Beach man who flies to the southwest with daughter and boyfriend is profiled as a human trafficker

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A Virginia Beach man was the focus of human trafficking suspicion by Southwest Airlines and Norfolk International Airport police when he returned home early last week.

John Kerrigan flew with his daughter, 15, and her 16-year-old girlfriend aboard Southwest Flight 4345 from Denver, the last leg of their journey back from Las Vegas on October 21.

The flight lasted about three and a half hours, and when Kerrigan got up to go to the bathroom, the flight attendant asked the girls some strange questions.

“She keeps asking if we’re okay and if we know you,” Kerrigan said his daughter told him. “And I said it seemed strange.”

Strange turned into disturbing and aggravating when they landed in Norfolk. An airport spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that Southwest had called airport police during the flight to suspect human trafficking, and that Kerrigan was their person of interest.

The plane arrived at the gate, but the passengers were told to remain seated, and then three airport officers boarded and walked back to the back row to Kerrigan and the girls.

“(They said): ‘Sir, will you follow us? We’d like to ask you some questions,” Kerrigan said, which they told him.

And as he was led off the plane past all the other passengers, “I said, ‘This is offensive.’ I found it very insulting. I mean, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Kerrigan said.

The officers questioned Kerrigan for about 20 minutes, did not detain him and eventually let him go. A Department of Homeland Security program likely sparked the whole thing. The Blue Lightning Initiative outlines what to look for as possible indicators of human trafficking.

Kerrigan agrees with that mission and wants human trafficking to stop, but it has to be done right.

“That was just a terrible way to do it,” he said. “We would all like to see them catch child traffickers. That’s a worthy goal. But to humiliate someone?”

A Southwest spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon that flight crews are trained to recognize the warning signs of human trafficking. He could not comment on the details of Kerrigan’s case and said Southwest had no record of his complaint.

10 On Your Side forwarded two complaint confirmation numbers and Southwest said that would work to resolve Kerrigan’s issue.

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