Passenger on Southwest banned from air travel for midflight self-abuse

Confined public space, cramped aircraft seat, mile high? No problem.

Murali Krishna Nookella, a local Internet technology employee on his way to Denver for a conference, masturbated in front of the woman sitting next to him during a Southwest Airlines flight originating in Philadelphia, according to a federal affidavit.

"You caught me," he told the shocked woman.

"Yeah, I did," she replied.

When Nookella got off Flight 228 on Monday, he was arrested and subsequently charged with obscene and indecent exposure, a misdemeanor, "by exhibiting his penis to a female passenger," according to the federal criminal complaint filed in Denver.

Before he was discovered with tissue in hand, Nookella appeared friendly toward the passenger, according to the affidavit.

The woman, identified only as C.S.A. in documents, soon opened her laptop, put on headphones and checked e-mails.

Then, Nookella leaned back in his seat and had a blanket up to his waist. "C.S.A. noticed that Nookella's eyes were closed as his hands moved all around his groin area underneath his blanket," the document said.

C.S.A. felt that "the situation was weird" and started to pack her computer to change seats when she saw "him holding his erect penis," the affidavit said.

The case appeared on TheSmokingGun.com Web site, which reported that Nookella lives in Delaware, but the Daily News could not find an address for him.

Nookella had a hearing Tuesday in federal court, Denver, and was released on $5,000 unsecured bond, said Jeffrey Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver.

He was "ordered by the court not to fly on any commercial aircraft nor can he contact witnesses involved in the matter," Dorschner said.

He is to be arraigned at 10 a.m. tomorrow.