A first-class passenger on an Arizona-bound Delta Airlines plane was arrested for allegedly using homophobic slurs against a flight attendant and physically assaulting the crew member for not serving him a drink.
Christopher Alexander Morgan allegedly threw a glass of ice and an onboard telephone at the flight attendant for refusing to continue serving alcohol to him.
Mr Morgan was arrested when flight 2908 touched down at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on 22 April and is facing charges of interference with flight crew members, which can be punishable with up to 20 years in prison.
The passenger called the flight attendant a “f**” and “queer”, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast.
The altercation reportedly started before the aircraft left Atlanta. Mr Morgan allegedly had his seat reclined “all the way back” and refused to “put on his seatbelt”.
Two flight attendants told the passenger he needed to bring his seatback to the upright position for takeoff, but he refused, becoming “uncooperative and would not comply with their instructions,” according to the affidavit.
After takeoff, he was served an alcoholic beverage, but when he ordered a second, he was served a non-alcoholic drink which allegedly angered him.
Mr Morgan called “HD [as the flight attendent was identified in the affidavit] the f-word and a ‘queer’ and threw a glass of ice at HD,” the filing read.
“When passenger RO [another passenger as identified in the document], who was sitting in seat 2G, said something to Morgan to deescalate Morgan’s display of aggression, Morgan became angry with the passenger RO and held the glass he was holding up to RO’s face,” it added.
When the flight attendant went to the aircraft’s galley to inform the captain, the accused then got out of his seat, grabbed the telephone and hit the attendant in the chest with it.
The incident prompted one of the flight attendants to stand guard on the door of the flight deck ”out of security concerns for the flight crew”.
Once the aircraft landed in Phoenix, Mr Morgan was quizzed by the FBI after being arrested. He claimed that the “flight attendant was homosexual and that made him uncomfortable,” according to the affidavit.
Mr Morgan also admitted to being a homophobe and that it “may have caused his temper towards the flight attendant to escalate,” it added.
The Independent has reached out to Delta Airlines for comment.
