Southwest flyer charged with trying to kiss flight attendant

A Southwest Airlines passenger is facing federal charges for allegedly assaulting a flight attendant and nearly forcing her to kiss him on a flight to Las Vegas.

William Morgan allegedly accosted the flight attendant 20 minutes before the plane was set to land on Oct. 3, 2022, demanding that she kiss him, according to a criminal complaint filed in Las Vegas federal court.

When the woman refused, Morgan allegedly grabbed her by the shoulders “and demanded a kiss again before stating that he was going to have a panic attack if [the flight attendant] did not go into the bathroom with him,” said the complaint, which was unsealed Monday.

He then tried to force her to kiss him, and it took three of Morgan’s friends and a flight attendant to restrain him in order for the plane to land without further incident at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, officials said.

The flight attendant, who was only identified as C.B. in the documents, said she “felt her life was in serious danger,” when Morgan grabbed her, the filing said.

The frightened woman tried to call for her help on the plane’s intercom, but Morgan allegedly ignored the steward who rushed in to help her colleague.

Morgan said he needed to kiss the woman and be in the bathroom with her to feel safe and “grabbed C.B.’s face and squeezed hard while trying to kiss her,” the complaint alleges.  

After Morgan was restrained, the assisting flight attendant kept him separated from the roughly 100 other passengers aboard the flight, which departed from Palm Springs, Calif.

Due to the fact that the assault took place while in the sky, Morgan was hit with two federal counts of simple assault, each carrying a maximum sentence of up to a year in prison.

A lawyer for Morgan was not listed in court records.

No arraignment date or plea had been entered.

Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The incident was just one of 2,455 cases of unruly passengers reported in 2022, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The agency reported about 857 cases in the first half of 2023.

Southwest has seen its fair share of recent incidents, with one rowdy passenger dragged off a flight after spitting at fellow travelers, with another featuring a man attacking another flier for allegedly bumping into his wife.