A California man is in federal custody after allegedly urinating outside the restroom during a Southwest Airlines flight last week between Dallas and Burbank, forcing the crew to divert the plane to Albuquerque.
Samson Hardridge, 33, of Lancaster, Calif. appeared in federal court Wednesday on a charge of interference with flight crew members and attendants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico said Thursday.
Charging documents say that while waiting to use the lavatory, Hardridge put his hands in his pants and asked if a flight attendant wanted to see his genitalia. The flight attendant declined.
The man then “proceeded to the aft galley door of the aircraft and began urinating in the corner,” according to prosecutors. After another flight attendant told him he couldn’t urinate there, Hardridge allegedly “became very hostile,” yelling and threatening the flight attendants and calling them a derogatory name.
One of the flight attendants “feared for their life due to their belief that his behavior was unpredictable,” court documents said. The second flight attendant told the pilot that they feared for their safety and the plane was diverted to the New Mexico airport instead of continuing to Southern California.
After the incident, Hardridge was asked to clean up the urine and continued his behavior until he was seated, prosecutors said.
Hardridge remains in custody until a detention hearing on Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Federal flight regulators have stepped up fines on unruly passengers during the last year and the FAA sent 80 misbehaving passenger complaints to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Flight attendant unions have said unruly passenger complaints come not only from a mask mandate but also over drunken passengers who are often inebriated before getting on a flight. Flight attendants have called on the federal government to institute a “no-fly list” for unruly passengers that can be shared between airlines to make sure that troublesome flyers can’t simply move to another carrier.
