Air Passenger Charged After Not Ending Call

An air passenger was charged yesterday with disorderly conduct after refusing to stop talking on his cell phone on a flight from Austin to Dallas. A spokesman for Joe David Jones' company told the Dallas Morning News the businessman was trying to reach the hospital where his father was being treated after going into cardiac arrest.

"Kiss my [expletive]. Not happening," Jones is alleged to have told flight attendants trying to get him to hang up as the plane descended. A spokeswoman says that although Southwest sympathizes with Jones' situation, "it was a safety regulation that we're required to enforce, and we're simply not in a position to make exceptions." (More cell phones stories.)