DALLAS — A California man accused of disrupting a California-bound flight from Dallas earlier this month appeared in federal court Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of New Mexico, Samson Hardridge, 33, of Lancaster, California, has been federally charged with interfering with a flight crew when he allegedly publicly urinated in the corner of a Southwest flight earlier this month.
According to a criminal complaint, Hardridge was a passenger aboard a Southwest flight 474 from Dallas to Burbank on Feb. 18, when, after takeoff, he got up from his seat to use the bathroom in the back of the plane.
A flight attendant asked Hardridge to stand in the aisle of the plane, since the galley was too small. That's when the attorney's office said he allegedly asked the flight attendant if she wanted to see his genitals. The flight attendant said now and again asked that the 33-year-old to stay on the carpeted area of the aisle.
That's when Hardridge allegedly went to the door near the rear galley of the plane and began urinating in the corner.
A second flight attendant stepped in and told Hardridge he could not urinate there; Hardridge allegedly became hostile, yelling and threatening the flight attendants and "infringed on their personal space."
Hardridge was again told to take his seat.
"Out of concern for their safety as well as that of the other passengers," one of the flight attendants told the pilot what was happening, and the flight was diverted into Albuquerque.
Hardridge will remain in custody, pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday, Feb. 25.
If convicted, Hardridge faces up to 20 years in prison.
Federal Aviation Administration statistics show that the rate of unruly passengers has declined since the FAA rolled out it's zero-tolerance policy last year on Jan. 13.
Back then, rate of reported unruly passengers reached a peak of 13 passengers per 10,000 flights at the end of January 2021. It has since declined to about six reported unruly passengers per 10,000 flights at the end of January 2022.
As of Feb. 22, 2022, the FAA said it has received roughly 600 reports of unruly passengers. Just under 400 of those incidents were related to face masks, according to the FAA. The FAA has formally investigated about 145 of those reports.
The federal agency said it investigated nearly 1,100 reports in all of 2021, which dwarfs the roughly 160, 140 and 180 total investigations for 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.
the FAA can propose up to $37,000 per violation for unruly passenger cases. Previously, the maximum civil penalty per violation was $25,000.