Virginia father John Kerrigan accused by Southwest Airlines of human trafficking while flying with his teenage daughter

A Virginia father was left confused when a Southwest Airlines crew accused him of human trafficking as he flew home with his teenage daughter and her boyfriend after a trip to Las Vegas.

John Kerrigan boarded his connecting flight to Virginia Beach at Denver International Airport with his 15-year-old daughter and her 16-year-old friend on Oct. 21 when flight crews became concerned.

A flight attendant approached the two teens and questioned them about their relationship with Kerrigan, who had left his seat to use the plane’s restroom.

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

Unbeknownst to the father or the teenage girls, the flight crew had contacted Norfolk International Airport and reported Kerrigan as a suspected human trafficker.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Light Initiative issues guidelines and training for airport and airline workers to become familiar with the signs of human trafficking.

One of the common indicators of this heinous crime is “an insincere relationship: especially with a parent or guardian and a child.”

Southwest employees are trained to spot the warning signs of human trafficking and learn the protocols for alerting law enforcement officials. according to the airline’s website.

Three police officers boarded the plane and confronted the trio as they arrived at the gate in Virginia.

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

Kerrigan found his public escort quite humiliating and contested his removal from the flight.

“I said, ‘This is offensive.’ I found it very insulting. I mean, I didn’t do anything wrong,” he added.

Airport officials questioned Kerrigan for twenty minutes but let him go without charging him.

The Post has contacted Southwest Airlines.

In September 2023, singer David Ryan Harris was flying with his biracial children when American Airlines executives accused him of trafficking them.

The “Don’t Look Down” hitmaker, 55, traveled from Atlanta to Los Angeles on September 15 with his sons Truman and Hendrix.

“Apparently a flight attendant had called ahead with some concern that my mixed children might not be my children,” Harris said in the video posted on September 23.

“Because they were unresponsive during an interaction with her. We are embarrassingly met by this AA employee and police officers. They interrogated my children.

Harris received an apology, with the airline claiming its policies around suspected human trafficking were not followed.

More than 1,900 people were referred to U.S. attorneys for human trafficking crimes in 2022, according to the Justice Department report. Report on Human Trafficking published in October 2024.

Of the referrals, 1,656 were prosecuted, a doubling of the number from 2012, while 1,118 convictions occurred in 2022.

U.S. district courts have charged 1,070 defendants with one of three human trafficking charges (trafficking, sex, and labor), with 91% male, 58% white, 20% black, 18% Hispanic, 95% U.S. citizens, and 71% with no prior had convictions.