Man Finds Out Slapping A Flight Attendant's Ass To Get Her Attention Will Land You Federal Charges And Maybe 20 Years In Prison

Flying is already a special nightmare, but some people just cannot seem to help themselves. And so we end up with stories like this one, about a 32-year-old man who's facing federal criminal charges for slapping a flight attendant's ass to get her attention on a Delta flight last month.

Cody James Maluck was indicted by a federal grand jury in Atlanta earlier this week for "interference with crew members or attendants," which is considered a federal crime and comes with a hefty price tag of 20 years of prison time if he's convicted.

The incident, reported by USA Today, happened May 9 on a Delta flight departing from Fort Lauderdale, FL for Los Angeles. According to the criminal complaint filed with the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, the flight attendant, identified as "P.L.L.," was carrying on with the flight's beverage service when she approached Maluck's row. P.L.L. told the investigator that she believed Maluck was asleep when she reached his seat, and so proceeded serving other passengers beverages.

That's when she "felt a slap to her buttocks area with sufficient force to cause her body to move forward." P.L.L. said that she turned around and saw Maluck raise his hands "stating words to the effect of 'I didn't do anything.'"

The chain of events were confirmed by a fellow Delta flight attendant working the flight, identified as Chapman in the documents.

Maluck admitted to touching P.L.L.'s "buttocks" when interviewed by investigators, but he added that he "did not slap her buttocks area with enough force to cause her body to move forward." He seems to have missed the point that the problem isn't how hard the slap was, but that he actually touched her butt to get her attention, something most women are not too keen about, especially from absolute strangers in their work environments.

The flight was eventually rerouted to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after P.L.L. reported what happened. There the Atlanta Police Department met with the aircraft, where Maluck was detained and arrested; he was then handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the incident was considered a federal criminal act. His arraignment is scheduled for June 15th in Atlanta.

Oddly enough, this isn't the first incident of something happening like this in the space of about a year. In May 2025, former California Highway Patrol captain Dennis Wally Woodbury, then 49, was also charged with a federal felony for slapping a flight attendant's ass on a JetBlue flight, and coincidentally was also flying to Los Angeles from Fort Lauderdale, FL (the same route as Maluck's flight). He added a couple of extra things, though, including showing pornographic imagery and exposing himself to flight attendants as well.