A gay father has hired an attorney and plans to sue United Airlines after he was falsely accused of inappropriately touching his 5-year-old son during a May 20 flight. A representative of the carrier has reportedly reached out to the family, but Henry Amador-Batten claims the call fell short of an actual apology.

According to a Raleigh-Durham International Airport police report, the man was traveling with his son on a flight from Newark, New Jersey to their home in North Carolina at the time of the incident, the New York Daily News reported Saturday. The flight's captain told police that United Airlines staff aboard the flight had observed Amador-Batten touching his son “near the genitals.”

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Upon the plane's arrival to Raleigh-Durham, Amador-Batten was approached by airport police who reportedly explained the accusations to the man in front of his young son. According to a Facebook post by Amador-Batten's husband Joel on their family parenting blog DADsquared, Amador-Batten had his “hand/arm laying across my sleeping son's lap” during the flight.

“After being made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers as they exited the plane my husband filed a report of his own mentioning that the male flight attendant that must have accused him had treated him oddly in flight, and was promptly sent on his way,” he continued. “This is the icing on the cake for a man who has spent nearly the last two weeks in Puerto Rico dealing with his father's quick decline and subsequent death. This is not how anyone deserves to be treated.”

A spokesperson for United Airlines told International Business Times in a Monday statement that the inquiry was a procedural decision. “In this instance, the crew believed it was appropriate to ask authorities to meet the plane and interview the customer,” said the spokesperson. “After speaking with the customer, authorities determined that no further action was necessary. Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect and we have followed up with our customer to apologize for the misunderstanding.”

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Amador-Batten — a former hairdresser and current stay-at-home father following their son's adoption — told the New York Post in a Saturday interview that a United Airlines representative did indeed reach out to him to apologize. But he said he doesn’t know “how anyone could consider that an apology.” He added that the woman seemed to want to “make the problem go away” and requested that he keep the the incident “low-key.”

Amador-Batten told the Post, “I can’t speak to that man’s heart, and I don’t wear a sticker on my head that says I am gay — but you could possibly look at me and make an assumption.’’ He added, “Somehow he didn’t like what he saw.”

“United has 100% of the responsibility for this outrageous conduct,” Ken Padowitz, the family's attorney, told ABC11 on Wednesday. “To be treated like a criminal, to go from zero to 100 and be calling law enforcement with armed police officers with guns to stop my client in front of other passengers, in front of other people at the terminal - and to put his son through this is outrageous conduct. It's not to be tolerated.”

United Airlines

Photo: Reuters/Louis Nastro

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