Las Vegas police are investigating a bizarre incident where a Northwest Airlines flight was cancelled because the pilot was yelling obscenities during a cell phone conversation while people were boarding the Las Vegas-to-Detroit plane.
The pilot in a heated conversation went from the cockpit to the lavatory.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilot cursed at least one passenger.
“He was having a fit, swearing up a storm,” a passenger on the flight told CNN. “He was saying ‘F this’ and ‘F that.'”
When confronted by passengers, the pilot became even more “obscene” and began cursing at the customers, she said. “He made a big disturbance.”
There were 180 passengers and five crew members on the flight to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Northwest Airlines Corp. said in a statement.
The name of the captain, who Mr Gregor described as a veteran pilot, wasn’t released.
Northwest removed the pilot from the aircraft and returned him to his home base in Detroit for an investigation. The airline issued an apology to passengers.
The FAA is also investigating.
Report by David Wilkening
