Man pees on sleeping passenger, gets banned by United Airlines

A man apologised after he peed on a passenger on a flight. Photo / 123rf

A man who allegedly urinated on a sleeping passenger on a United Airlines flight has been banned by the airline.

On December 27, United Airlines flight UA189 took off from San Francisco International Airport and headed to Manilla, Philippines.

SFGate first reported that four hours into the flight an unidentified man left his seat and started urinating on Jerome Gutierrez, who was sleeping in business class.

Gutierrez, sitting in his seat with clothes soaking, only realised what had happened after the man had finished urinating.

“He was asleep and buckled in and was surprised when he looked at the man and thought he was dreaming,” Gutierrez’s stepdaughter Nicole Cornell told SFGate.

“Jerome realised he was soaked from his stomach down in that man’s urine.”

According to Cornell, the flight attendants feared a violent confrontation if Gutierrez approached the man and asked him not to. They also provided him with pyjamas to change into.

Speaking to SFGate, a United Airlines spokesperson confirmed there was “a passenger disturbance” on the flight and they have “banned this passenger” after police arrived to meet him in Manila.

Cornell added that the man apologised and “begged them not to press charges”.

It is unclear as to why the man left his seat to urinate on Gutierrez.

It’s not the first time passengers have been impacted by pee-antics on planes.

Last January, two Kiwis successfully battled Qantas for a refund of their flights after claiming their plane seats were wet with a previous passenger’s urine.

Issues began when the Wellington-based couple took their seats on a Bangkok to Sydney flight and one placed his Qantas pillow, along with other belongings on the floor, under the seat in front of him.

When he picked the pillow up again, it was “wet and stained on one side”.

In December 2023, an Air New Zealand passenger was fined after urinating in a cup after landing at Sydney Airport.