DJ Khaled’s Bravo star flight attendant makes jaw-dropping claims about his pilot: Allegations of groping, force-feeding and sick fascination with her feet while aboard $50m private jet… and the surgery that she says made things worse

The chief pilot of DJ Khaled’s private jet allegedly subjected the hip-hop megastar’s personal flight attendant to a campaign of sexual harassment that included drunken come-ons and uninvited groping, according to a federal lawsuit obtained by the Daily Mail.

Sierra Storm, 31, claimed in her October 27 complaint that Captain Esterman Rumbos was especially fixated on her feet and toes, ‘habitually’ making ‘unsolicited, sexualized remarks’ about them ‘when she removed her high heels during long workdays.’

Khaled’s wife, Nicole, personally requested that Storm, a former yacht stewardess who appeared on Season 4 of the Bravo reality show Below Deck, work full-time aboard the Grammy winner’s $50 million Bombardier business jet, the complaint added.

She claimed that Khaled ‘personally praised Storm’s work’ while suggesting she had a bright future with him. 

However, Storm claimed that constant objectification by the 50-year-old Rumbos, along with a handful of his fellow pilots, eventually became so unbearable that she got rid of her breast implants.

When she reported to higher-ups what she claimed had been happening, Storm’s complaint said she was pushed out of her job under false pretenses.

A spokesperson for DJ Khaled, whose real name is Khaled Mohamed Khaled and who is named as a co-defendant in Storm’s suit, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Messages left for Rumbos also went unanswered, as did a request sent to Solairus Aviation LLC, the aircraft management company that maintains and operates Khaled’s plane for him and directly employs Rumbos.

Storm’s attorneys did not respond to the Daily Mail’s multiple requests for comment. 

Storm began working for Solairus in November 2023 as a contract flight attendant on various clients’ airplanes, according to her complaint filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In March 2024, Storm was assigned to Khaled’s plane, the complaint stated. She impressed so much that when a personnel shake-up that May saw Storm rotated off the Khaled family’s aircraft, Khaled’s wife ‘insisted’ she be brought back, the complaint claimed. 

On June 11, 2024, Storm became Khaled’s full-time flight attendant, earning a base salary of $150,000 as part of an annual package worth, including benefits and perks, some $350,000, according to the complaint.

Almost as soon as Storm was assigned to Khaled’s plane, Rumbos ‘subjected [her] to a sustained and escalating pattern of sexual harassment, unwanted physical contact, and quid pro quo pressure,’ the complaint stated. 

From there, things got significantly more lurid, according to the complaint. 

The ‘unwanted physical contact’ allegedly included Rumbos kissing Storm’s hand over and over ‘while looking at her in a romantic manner’ and suggesting the two ‘travel together to New York City to see the Christmas decorations,’ the complaint said. 

It further accused Rumbos of holding Storm down at a company dinner and attempting to ‘forcefully… feed Storm dessert over her repeated refusals,’ threatening to fire her if she didn’t play along, according to the complaint.

There were unwanted full-body hugs, brazen public gropings, and comments so out of line that other pilots felt obliged to step in, the complaint stated. 

Storm allegedly made clear to Rumbos that she was not interested in dating him, but he insisted she was ‘holding back’ on her real feelings.

Through it all, Storm believed that keeping her job on Khaled’s jet ‘depended on her acceptance of a romantic relationship’ with Rumbos, the complaint stated. 

In early 2025, Storm underwent breast implant removal surgery and, according to her complaint, ‘elected not to have replacement implants, in order to reduce the sexual objectification she experienced in the workplace.’

It didn’t work, the complaint alleged. 

‘When Storm returned to work three days after the surgery,’ it said, Rumbos ‘fully grabbed and cupped her breast under the pretense of outstretching his arms and yawning.’

Storm had experienced harassment from a handful of other pilots and aircraft workers at the company, as well, the complaint stated. One, a mechanic who is not named as a defendant in the case, allegedly lured Storm onto a parked plane ‘under the pretext of a work question,’ according to the complaint.

The mechanic then ‘grabbed and rubbed his genitals through his pants for more than a minute,’ the complaint stated. 

After Storm reported the incident to HR, Solairus hired an outside law firm to investigate what Storm’s complaint called ‘a systemic pattern of abuse.’ 

In June 2025, the mechanic was fired as a result of its findings, and Solairus’s COO promised Storm ‘a safe space’ while working to improve conditions at Solairus ‘and the industry as a whole,’ according to the complaint.

Yet, Storm would once again be disappointed, the complaint said. 

It claimed the COO advised Storm to ‘form a strong relationship’ with Rumbos, complimenting the pilot as the ‘right man’ for the DJ Khaled job, and neglected to dig any deeper into the overall situation. 

Following the call, Storm was forced to contact Rumbos herself and ‘firmly set new physical and professional boundaries,’ the complaint stated.

‘I am not OK,’ Storm said she told Rumbos. ‘I vomited after the call.’

At this point, according to the complaint, ‘Members of Khaled’s team who had previously greeted Storm warmly became cold and silent and turned away from her… just days after Khaled was briefed on the investigation.’

Rumbos and his co-pilot spoke only in Spanish when Storm was present, excluded her from crew activities, and ‘refused to provide operational support,’ the complaint alleged. It said Rumbos also leveled false accusations, in writing, about mistakes that Storm hadn’t made.

Among them, a July 1, 2025, incident during which customs officers in Barbados discovered cannabis belonging to an unnamed passenger aboard Khaled’s plane, the complaint stated. 

Rumbos accused Storm of having known about the marijuana; Storm’s complaint said she had no knowledge of its presence.

Two days after that, a Solairus HR exec called Storm and told her that Khaled no longer wanted her on his plane because of ‘incidents’ that had occurred, according to the complaint.

Storm was instructed not to contact Khaled or his family ever again, it said. When Storm asked what the specific incidents in question were, she wasn’t given an answer, the complaint stated. 

Storm would be demoted back to per diem status if she were to stay, so she declined, the complaint alleged. It said she was then taken off altogether from the broader flight schedule, on Rumbos’s orders, ‘until further notice.’

Solairus ‘allowed Rumbos, the man Storm had rejected and reported, to direct her removal without review,’ the complaint alleged. 

Storm claimed the experience has caused her, among other things, ‘severe emotional distress, including anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, hypervigilance, flashbacks, and physical symptoms including chronic fatigue, migraines, and hormonal disruption,’ and that her reputation in the ‘referral-based private aviation industry’ has been damaged.

She is seeking a judge’s ruling that her civil rights were violated, plus lost wages and benefits, as well as compensatory damages for emotional pain, suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of dignity and humiliation; punitive damages; and attorneys’ fees and court costs.