Southwest passenger booted for jabbing snoring flier with pen

A Southwest Airlines passenger was removed from her flight after allegedly using a pen to jab a seatmate in an apparent attempt to stop his snoring.

The woman's pen prods left the man's shirt streaked with ink marks, according to a tweet from a passenger who identified himself as a friend of the snoring man. A follow-up tweet from Sutton said that the man's "arm touched hers on the arm rest," perhaps further upsetting the woman.

Regardless of the precise cause, Southwest officials says the woman was removed from the Thursday flight from Chicago Midway to Manchester, N.H., for "causing a disturbance." The victim was identified by Chicago's ABC 7 as Lenny Mordarski.

"Our plane is heading back to the gate to escort off the psycho who stabbed lenny in the arm with her pen. She is just smirking," Michael N. Sutton, an apparent passenger on the flight, said via Twitter. Sutton identified himself as the "best friend" of the victim.

The Associated Press says "the Chicago Fire Department was called to evaluate the man."

Despite that, Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said the man was not injured and that he continued on the New Hampshire flight, which ended up departing nearly two hours late.

In a statement to WGN TV of Chicago, Southwest said only that "a customer on Flight 577 was removed from the flight for poking her seatmate with a pen to stop him from snoring."

The woman was eventually accommodated on another flight.