Two sides are butting heads after a Southwest passenger was ticketed for refusing to hang up on what he said was an emergency phone call.

Joe Jones, the CEO of Skyonic, talked to News 8 in January about cookies made from the carbon dioxide in power plant exhaust. Now, he has made news for a different reason.

Jones was on Southwest Airlines flight from Austin to Dallas when he answered his cell phone. He said it was an emergency phone call about his dad.

"They said he needed to call the cardiac unit immediately for a decision about his father's care and resuscitation," said Mark Clayton, a friend and co-worker of Jones'.

While Clayton defended Jones, Southwest Airlines refuses after they said a flight attendant asked Jones to turn off his phone three times.

"During this stage of the flight, there is a reason we don't have cell phones activated on board the plane," said Daryl Krause, Southwest Airlines. "So, at that particular moment it was not the time to probably negotiate."

Dallas police were waiting for Jones when he got off the flight and gave him a ticket for disorderly conduct. A police report said Jones was "upset and using profanity." It stated that he told one of the attendants "she could kiss his [expletive]."

"He said while he regrets the inconvenience, he felt it was life or death, and still does," Clayton said. "And [he] felt like he had to make that call."

But Southwest said it was about more than just an inconvenience.

"There are 137 seats on board the aircraft and five crew members," Krause said. "So, their safety comes first, including the safety of the passenger who was on the phone."