Pilot in Hot Water After Giving Airport-Goers an Eyeful

Andrew Collins stood in front of his hotel room window in the buff
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2018 1:00 PM CST
Pilot in Hot Water After Giving Airport-Goers an Eyeful
We assume the pilot accused of standing naked in his hotel room window also wasn't wearing his captain's hat.   (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Capt. Andrew Collins doesn't deny he stood in his birthday suit in front of his hotel window at Denver International Airport in September. He just didn't think anyone could see him, he now tells the Denver Post. But the 54-year-old United Airlines pilot was definitely visible to a bunch of people in the airport's main terminal, and he's now been hit with a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure. A police report seen both by the Post and the Denver Channel notes that on the morning of Sept. 20, Collins allegedly pulled back the curtains of his 10th-floor Westin hotel room, which overlooks the DIA terminal, while in the buff, "in full view of the public." Witnesses say Collins "willingly and knowingly" exposed his genitals, with a TSA officer saying the pilot was also "touching himself" and waving at him.

Collins tells a different story to the Post, noting he was getting ready to take a shower that morning but then hopped on a phone call that lasted nearly 30 minutes. He says he pulled back the curtains and stood in front of the window while he chatted, but he insists he couldn't see the terminal below through the "opaque" green glass of the concourse windows, and so he figured they couldn't see him, either, per Craig Silverman, his lawyer. "It's like looking at a green wall or a green mirror," Silverman says, adding cops then entered his client's room without a warrant. A UA rep says Collins has been "removed from his duties" while an investigation is carried out, though Collins tells the Post he wasn't suspended. His next court appearance is Dec. 5. (A chef was recently charged with indecent exposure at a women's business event.)

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