Drunk passenger asked flight attendants to join the 'mile-high club' and then lay on the floor of the plane, complaint says
DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images
- A man is accused of drunkenly grabbing and asking a flight attendant to join "the mile-high club."
- Court documents say that the passenger "alarmed" flight attendants on what was his first flight.
- He has disputed some of the details and called the charges "bogus," The Daily Beast reported.
A man faces charges of interfering with flight attendant duties on his very first flight, after he drunkenly propositioned them about the "mile-high club," federal prosecutors say.
Federal officers allege that on an 8.11 a.m. Spirit Airlines flight from Louisville, Kentucky, to Orlando, an intoxicated James Warren Finnister twice propositioned flight attendants, grabbing one of them, and then lay down on the floor of the plane.
The complaint, filed on Tuesday, says that about an hour into the flight, Finnister asked the lead attendant if she wanted to join the "mile-high club."
After this, his seat was reassigned, the complaint says.
He said that he had downed a few shots because he was nervous on his first flight, it says.
The complaint also said that he grabbed one of the other flight attendants and "pulled her into his seat," repeating his proposition about the "mile-high club."
According to the complaint, Finnister also asked questions related to entering the cockpit, which "alarmed" the flight attendant.
Finnister told The Daily Beast that the charges are "bogus," that he doesn't remember doing the things the complaint alleges, and that he was asleep most of the time.
In his recollection, Finnister said he "made a joke" when he first got on the plane, which made the attendants laugh.
"I said, 'This one of those mile-high flights?'" he told the outlet. After chatting to a father and son sat next to him, he fell asleep for two hours, he said.
He insisted he didn't put his hands on any of the flight attendants.
He also said that the questions about the cockpit were meant innocently.
"I asked about the cockpit, like, is this the cockpit up here?" he told the Beast. "I never been on a plane, I wanted to have a look," he said.
In addition to the above, the criminal complaint says that after he was moved from his seat due to "disruptive, intimidating behaviors," Finnister lay down on the floor of the plane.
"The flight attendants were forced to stop service and pick Finnister off the floor," prosecutors wrote.
Officers were waiting for Finnister when the plane touched down in Orlando at around 10.26 a.m., according to the complaint.
Court documents seen by Business Insider indicate that Finnister has been released on a bond, having surrendered his passport, and is barred from consuming alcohol pending the trial.