When Ya Gotta Go...

"A felony charge brought on by Montezuma's revenge" is how the Atlanta Journal-Constitution summarizes an unfortunate incident onboard a recent Delta Air Lines flight.

Joao Correa, a 43-year-old Ohio man, had been onboard his March 28 Delta flight from Honduras to Atlanta for about 30 minutes when the last meal he ate in the Latin American country started to... unsettle... his stomach. He looked to the lavatory in Y class, and saw the beverage cart blocking the aisle on the Boeing 737 narrowbody.

Correa says he waited a few minutes for the cart to move, but no relief came. So he ran towards the front of the plane, to the lavatory in business class.

There are differing accounts of what happened next. Correa said a female flight attendant put her arm up to block his access to the forward lav, and that he grabbed it to keep his balance while coming to an abrupt stop. But the attendant, Stephanie Scott, says Correa deliberately grabbed her right arm after she placed it 'lightly' on his shoulder, pulling it down and twisting it.

The pilot allowed Correa to use the business class lav. After the incident, Correa returned to his seat, where he stayed quietly for the duration of the three-hour international flight. In fact, he may have thought the incident was over... until authorities met him as he tried to make his connection to Columbus, OH.

Then he was arrested. A deadheading pilot from another airline, who was seated in the business class cabin, had vouched for Scott's account of the encounter to the FBI.

"I'm devastated," said Correa. "I'm so traumatized emotionally. It's been really, really hard on me. I've never had any event with the police in my life."

Correa appeared before a US magistrate Monday on a federal assault charge, and was granted bond. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for April 17.

A Delta spokeswoman said it's against FAA regulations for passengers to use lavatories outside their seating class on international flights.

FMI: www.delta.com, www.faa.gov