Southwest flight makes emergency landing after passenger allegedly plays unwanted game of 'footsie,' says God spoke to him on flight
On Tuesday, a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Dallas was forced to make an emergency landing in New Mexico after a man allegedly wouldn’t stop “playing footsie” with a female passenger.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Justin Riley Brafford, 29, is currently in federal custody in New Mexico and will face a felony count of interference with a flight crew, along with a misdemeanor assault charge, because of his actions on Southwest Flight 859.
Brafford proved to be a nightmare of a seat mate when he sat next to a woman identified as M.W. According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, he allegedly put his arm on her leg as the plane was being readied for takeoff. M.W. leaned away from his advances, and he upped the ante by trying to “play footsie” with her — a flirting game where two people touch feet, usually under a table or another concealed place.
M.W. told Brafford to stop kicking her, and Brafford allegedly responded by asking her to go out with him after the flight, as well as asking her if she was staying alone in her hotel room, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
When M.W. declined to go out with him, Brafford whispered into her ear, “Don’t [expletive] with me,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
A flight attendant on board assumed that the two were a couple, based on Brafford’s physical closeness to M.W., but at her request moved her to a new seat.
Brafford, obviously unable to take a hint, tried to bring M.W. a drink at her new seat. That was when a flight attendant spoke to him, and, according to the complaint, he went from “zero to sixty in nano-seconds,” cursing and yelling.
His response was so abrupt and hostile that the flight attendant notified the pilot, who diverted the flight to Albuquerque, where Brafford was taken into custody.
Brafford allegedly told authorities that he believed he and the woman had a connection and that they had been watching videos on her computer. He said he thought she was flirting with him. He also told authorities that he had used methamphetamines the day before the flight and overdosed on heroin on Saturday. According to the Dallas Morning News, he reported to the FBI that God was talking to him during the flight.
The man faces an assault charge with a penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, as well as 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for felony interference with a flight crew.
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