A woman involved in an altercation on a Delta Air Lines flight accused Porsha Williams of assaulting her after a verbal dispute, but “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star denies hitting the woman.
The Atlanta Police Department released body camera video Wednesday of Williams, 44, and the other woman detailing what led up to the altercation Sunday night on a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta.
The FBI’s Atlanta field office said it was aware of the incident.
“It is unknown at this time if federal charges will apply,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Williams said Thursday that Williams “was verbally assaulted” by the woman “without provocation.”
“The passenger then proceeded to make false allegations that were in direct conflict with observations from several eyewitnesses,” the spokesperson said. “As with any incident occurring aboard an aircraft, federal authorities are required to conduct an investigation involving all parties to determine what, if any, offenses occurred.”
The spokesperson said Williams is cooperating with law enforcement and “remains confident that the passenger will be charged.”
The identity of the other woman was not immediately clear.
In the bodycam video, Williams tells the officer that she was scrolling on her phone with the volume up when the woman seated next to her in first class started complaining about the noise.
“She turned to me out of nowhere and said, ‘So are you gonna make me listen to that the whole flight?'” Williams tells the officer at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“I said, ‘Well, do you want to?’ And she said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Well, there’s a nicer way to say that.'”
Williams told the officer that the woman began cursing at her and then accused Williams of hitting her in the face, according to the bodycam video. Williams denied putting her hands on the woman.
Flight attendants ended up moving the woman to another seat, Williams says in the video.
As Williams was sharing her side of the story, two passengers who said they witnessed the incident defended her and told the officer that Williams did not hit the woman.
In a second body camera video, the other woman involved told the officer that she was fearful.
“Before I say anything, I want to know, is my information going to be given to the woman that assaulted me? Because I’m afraid for my life,” she says in the video.
“No ma’am, it’s not,” the officer responds.
The woman says she complained about Williams’ having the phone volume on “full blast.”
“I jumped because it was so loud,” she tells the officer.
The woman says that she waited for more than 20 minutes before she said something to Williams about the sound and that things quickly escalated.
“The next thing I know, there was a fingernail so close to my eye I thought I was going to be physically attacked. She had her hands in my face, screaming, calling me crazy, on and on and on,” the woman says in the video.
In the video, the woman says that when she grabbed her phone to record the incident, Williams hit it out of her hand.
“And that’s assault,” the woman says. “And I’m 70 years old.”