Pilot's Outbursts Cancel Flight

MICHIGAN

A Northwest Airlines flight was cancelled on Friday because the pilot was yelling obscenities during a cell phone conversation while people were boarding, and cursed one passenger, a federal official said on Saturday. The pilot of the Las Vegas-to-Detroit flight was apparently in a heated cell phone conversation in the cockpit, then went into a lavatory, locked the door and continued the conversation, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. “Passengers who were boarding the aircraft could hear his end of it,” Gregor said.


Las Vegas police were sent to McCarran International Airport to investigate, Gregor said. He said Northwest removed the pilot from the aircraft. Passengers were accommodated on other flights to their destinations, the airline said.