Model Faces Jail For Mile-High Tantrum

LOS ANGELES, CA — A fashion model may have to trade in the catwalk for the cellblock thanks to her drunken, slur-filled attack on a flight attendant while flying from Australia to Los Angeles.

Adau Akui Mornyang, a 25-year-old fashion model and Australia Miss World finalist, faces sentencing Monday after being found guilty in March of interference with a flight attendant and assault. The assault, which included a slew of obscenities and racial slurs, stood out even in this era of viral in-flight disturbances, according to prosecutors. At one point, the model began flinging her dirty socks at other passengers, according to court records.

"Her behavior was so severe, unpredictable and unmanageable that several federal air marshals were forced out from undercover" to deal with the situation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mornyang would spend one month behind bars and three months under house arrest if prosecutors get their way. The house arrest would be followed by two years of supervised release and payment of a $2,000 fine, court papers show.

The trouble started Jan. 21 about nine hours into the 15-hour flight from Melbourne when passengers approached United Airlines crew member Romeo Gutierrez to complain that Mornyang was "yelling obscenities and racial slurs and flailing her arms," the government's sentencing memorandum states.

When Gutierrez approached, the Australia-based, South Sudan-born model began to shout and slapped him across the face. When the abuse continued, Gutierrez tried to hold her down until federal air marshals could assist, evidence shows.

Air marshals stayed with Mornyang at the rear galley of the plane through the remainder of the flight.

An affidavit in the case stated that Mornyang responded that she was a "strong black woman" and that the crew was "singling her out" for abuse. At one point, she removed her socks and threw them at nearby passengers, prosecutors said.

Crew members who served her two glasses of wine before the trouble started noticed an empty wine bottle at her seat, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mornyang's "conduct and its potential dangerous consequences should not be minimized," prosecutors wrote. "Flying, much less flying internationally for 14 hours, is an uncomfortable and miserable experience in tight and crammed spaces. Defendant purposefully exacerbated those conditions when she chose to get inebriated and lash out at the flight crew and fellow passengers."

Mornyang migrated to Australia when she was 10 as a refugee from war-torn South Sudan. A 2017 Miss World Australia finalist, she received international attention two years ago when she streamed an hourlong Facebook Live video about being raped. She is also known as an advocate against rape victim-blaming culture, particularly in South Sudanese communities.

Prosecutors wrote that although the government is "sympathetic of defendant's tragic and sad past, (her) unprovoked physical attack of a flight attendant and the potential dangerous consequences of that action warrant a custodial term."

By FRED SHUSTER, City News Service. Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this story.