Runway model: Former Miss World Australia contestant, Adau Mornyang says she has no recollection of the mid-air tirade. Photo / Getty Images
Runway model: Former Miss World Australia contestant, Adau Mornyang says she has no recollection of the mid-air tirade. Photo / Getty Images
Explosive audio has emerged of an Australian model hurling obscenities and referring to a flight attendant as a "white trash b***h" on a US-bound plane.
Adau Mornyang, 25, from Melbourne, is facing up to 21 years in a US prison after she was convicted in March of assaulting a flight attendant on a Melbourne to Los Angeles flight.
In audio obtained by A Current Affair Mornyang can allegedly be heard becoming more and more erratic as flight attendants attempt to get the model to calm down.
"You need to shut the (bleep) up and tolerate whatever the (bleep bleep) you are getting ya (bleep)," Mornyang says.
"Don't you ever dare come up to me and tell me, 'oh you are disturbing everybody else.'"
Mornyang then says she is "ready for your white a**!" and later removes her socks, hurling them at nearby passengers.
Adau Mornyang, who was born in Sudan, moved to Australia when she was 10. Photo / Don Arnold, Getty Images
A court in Los Angeles heard Mornyang, a former Miss World Australia contestant, ordered "several glasses of wine" on the January 21 flight with United Airlines, and was then cut off from drinking more.
The court was told passengers first began complaining about Mornyang's "erratic behaviour" about 8.5 hours into the flight, which included flailing her arms and yelling obscenities, including racial slurs.
When flight attendant Romeo Gutierrez tried to calm her down, she put her left index finger near his face and suddenly "smacked" him, the court heard.
An air marshal escorted her to the back of the plane and put her in handcuffs. The judge noted about two hours before the plane landed in LA, Mornyang was allowed to use the bathroom, but she stayed inside for 45 minutes and would not leave.
Marshals had to carry her out, and "while they held her arms and legs, she allegedly kicked" one of the marshals in the chest, the court heard.
A jury in March found Mornyang guilty of a felony charge of interference with a flight crew member and a misdemeanour count of assault.
Mornyang lost her bid for a new trial earlier this month, with her lawyers unsuccessful in arguing LA was not the proper venue for her trial.
The model's legal team also argued prosecutors "did not lay proper foundation" to play "an allegedly prejudicial audio recording" taken by another passenger of Mornyang at the trial. The judge ruled testimony identifying the audio recording met the "minimum requirements for authentication".
The model, who was born in Sudan, has enjoyed significant success as a model since moving to Australia when she was 10.
She has worked as a global campaign face for Sephora, was a Miss World Victorian finalist and Miss World Australia finalist, and recently walked the runway at New York Fashion Week.
Mornyang told The Melbourne Herald Sun in March she had no memory of mixing prescription drugs with alcohol to sleep during the flight, and denied being drunk on the plane.
"All I remember was waking up after sleeping for eight hours," she said.
"I was so confused and begging and pleading for them to tell me what I did. I was ignored, I was in and out of consciousness, and was later locked up in federal prison still with no memory of what I was arrested for.
"I was not intoxicated because I had only two glasses of wine during dinner service, requested a seat move and slept for what I believe to have been eight hours, just to wake up five hours and five minutes before landing to an arrest.
