A passenger aboard an hour-long Southwest Airlines hop from Southern California to Las Vegas allegedly tried to force himself on a flight attendant, insisting he was having a panic attack and wouldn’t be able to settle down unless she joined him in the lavatory.
The man kept at it until three of his buddies finally pinned him to a seat so the plane could land, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast.
William Morgan is now facing two federal counts of simple assault within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Each specific charge in Morgan’s case, which was unsealed Monday, carries up to a year in prison.
The surreal incident occurred shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2022—about 40 minutes after Southwest flight 2130 left Palm Springs International Airport with roughly 100 passengers and three flight attendants onboard, the complaint states. With 20 minutes to go, Morgan, who was seated in the middle of the coach cabin, walked to the rear of the aircraft and approached a flight attendant identified in the complaint only as “C.B.”
“Morgan demanded that C.B. kiss him,” the complaint states. “C.B. got up from her jump seat, at which point Morgan put his arms on her shoulders and demanded a kiss again before stating that he was going to have a panic attack if C.B. did not go into the bathroom with him.”
C.B. then pushed Morgan away and used the airplane’s intercom to summon help, according to the complaint, which says C.B. “felt her life was in serious danger.”
A flight attendant IDed in the complaint as “K.L.” rushed to help C.B. and said she saw Morgan with his hands on C.B.’s shoulders. She tried to calm him down, the complaint says, but Morgan instead wheeled around and grabbed K.L.’s shoulders, telling her that “he needed C.B. to kiss him to calm down.”
“Morgan then grabbed C.B.’s face and squeezed hard while trying to kiss her,” the complaint alleges. “K.L. has stated that she was scared for her life and that she was concerned for other passengers.”
At this point, three other men who were traveling with Morgan physically restrained him while the flight landed at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, the complaint states.
“[T]he flight was not delayed, but the flight attendants were unable to conduct final landing checks because of Morgan’s interference. Additionally, K.L. remained in the aisle as the flight landed to ensure that Morgan would not be a safety risk to other passengers.”
In the first six months of 2023, the FAA has received some 857 reports of unruly passengers. Last year, the agency received 2,455 reports of unruly passengers, down from a high in 2021 of 5,973.
Last year, a Southwest passenger who openly masturbated four times on a three-hour flight from Seattle to Phoenix was sentenced to 48 days in jail and one year of probation for his lewd behavior. In May, an American Airlines passenger was arrested for allegedly sliding his hand up a flight attendant’s thigh to her “crotch area.” Earlier this month, a nephrologist from the Atlanta suburbs was accused of groping his seatmate while flying to Maine to propose to his girlfriend.
Morgan does not have an attorney listed in court records and was unable to be reached for comment on Monday. Southwest Airlines did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
