Man on Southwest flight arrested after allegedly harassing female passenger and flight attendants

A Texas man is facing a felony count of interference with a flight crew and a misdemeanor assault charge after he touched a woman on a Southwest Airlines flight  and then shouting at flight attendants this week. 

Justin Riley Brafford, 29, appeared before a court in New Mexico Wednesday and remains in federal custody, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by Dallas News.

{mosads}The woman who is the subject of the assault charge said that while she was sitting in an aisle seat on a flight from Los Angeles to Dallas, Brafford, who was in the middle seat, put his arm on her leg as the plane was preparing to take off.

After ignoring him, Brafford got closer to the woman and began “playing footsies” with her despite asking him to stop kicking her, Dallas News reports she told the FBI.

The woman then faced personal questions from Brafford such as her name and where she lived. She declined an invitation to go out with him, to which Brafford replied “don’t [expletive] with me.”

The woman asked to change seats, but Brafford later came to her new seat to confront her. When a flight attendant confronted Brafford about the incident, he became belligerent.

Brafford wasn’t acting “like a normal person” and seemed to go “from zero to sixty in nano-seconds,” the complaint says, causing the flight attendant to believe he might be on drugs, according to Dallas News.

The flight attendant then notified the pilot of the situation, who diverted the flight to Albuquerque. Brafford was taken into custody with no further incident but flight attendants were ready with restraints and blankets. 

Brafford later told authorities he believed the woman had been flirting with him. He added that he had used methamphetamines the day before the flight and had overdosed on heroin Saturday. He also told the FBI that God had been talking to him during the flight.