Adau Mornyang migrated from South Sudan to Australia as a refugee at age 10. Photo / Instagram
Adau Mornyang migrated from South Sudan to Australia as a refugee at age 10. Photo / Instagram
An Australian model who avoided jail after a drunken flight in which she attacked a flight attendant and called another a "white trash b***h" has been locked up in the US indefinitely after a "surprise ambush", according to her sister.
Adau Mornyang, 25, faced up to 21 years in jail after being found guilty in March of assaulting crew members on a United Airlines flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles on January 21.
The former Miss Australia finalist ultimately escaped with 100 hours of community service and three years probation.
But on September 17, Adau was reportedly arrested and jailed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in "a surprise ambush" when an official claimed she was in the country illegally, according to Adau's sister Maria Mornyang. She has been detained ever since.
"Adau was shocked, since she knew she never entered the United States illegally nor overstayed her visa," Maria wrote on a GoFundMe page that was launched on Thursday to help raise funds to cover her sister's legal expenses.
"My sister has been in jail for over two months, she's not been given any trial since arrest by [US immigration] nor found guilty of overstaying her visa, just kept in jail indefinitely."
Maria wrote that her sister entered the US on a valid 01 visa which expires on December 26, 2021, and included what appears to be a photograph of the document on the fundraising page.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman confirmed the department was assisting an Australian held in US detention.
"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in the US. Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment," the statement reads.
The incident comes after Adau, who migrated from South Sudan to Australia as a refugee at age 10, was convicted of felony interference with a flight crew and misdemeanour assault. She was acquitted of a third count of assaulting an air marshal.
Adau was nine hours into a January 21 flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles and had apparently been drinking wine excessively when she began "yelling obscenities and racial slurs and flailing her arms", prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum.
In March, a jury heard Adau ordered "several glasses" of wine on the flight and that passengers were forced to complain to staff about her disruptive behaviour about nine hours into the journey.
"When the flight attendant approached to assess the situation, Mornyang began to shout at the flight attendant and then slapped him across his face," the court heard.
The flight crew tried to defuse the situation by banning Adau from consuming any more alcohol. But she responded by yelling obscenities and racial slurs, before she refused to leave a bathroom cubicle then had to be handcuffed by an air marshall and held at the rear of the plane.
In exclusive audio obtained by A Current Affair, Adau could allegedly be heard becoming more and more erratic as flight attendants attempt to get the model to calm down.
Australian model Adau Mornyang fell foul of US authorities while on a flight to Los Angeles.Photo / news.com.au / News Limited
"You need to shut the (bleep) up and tolerate whatever the (bleep bleep) you are getting ya (bleep)," Adau says in the audio.
"Don't you ever dare come up to me and tell me, 'oh you are disturbing everybody else.'"
Adau continues to question how she is disturbing other passengers before accusing the flight attendants of racism.
Her fellow passengers complained to the crew. But she only lashed out more when flight attendants attempted to calm her, and she slapped one of them. Several air marshals had to come out from undercover to help deal with her, prosecutors said.
"Right now I am disturbing everybody else because of (bleep) you, you (beep) white trash b***h," Adau says.
"I am a black African woman who is unstable … who needs to be controlled." Adau then says she is "ready for your white a**!" and later removes her socks, hurling them at nearby passengers.
In sentencing Adau, US District Judge Cormac J. Carney said he believed the model was genuinely remorseful.
But the GoFundMe page claims ICE agents revoked Adau's visa without telling her as pay back for her escaping a prison sentence.
"This no-jail outcome must've infuriated [immigration] officials who proceeded (without Adau's knowledge) to revoke her valid visa and subsequently arrested her for being in the country illegally," the GoFundMe page reads.
"Meanwhile, a judge never ordered that Adau should leave the country."
