A pastor smacked her wife on an Alaska Airlines flight flying from Seattle to Anchorage after she got upgraded to first class but he didn’t. The incident took place on July 2 on flight 275 as passengers witnessed the horrific exchange between the couple. The Independent reported that a criminal complained was filed against the pastor.
The couple were traveling to Alaska from their home in Virginia for a meeting “related to their ministry,” states the complaint, which was filed July 3.It says the Holmbergs knew each other for some 20 years before marrying a year-and-a-half ago, following the death of Holmberg’s previous wife.
It was 3.5-hour flight and there were three separate encounters between the pastor and his wife.
In the first, the pastor confronted his wife and asked: ‘How the hell did you get the upgrade?” The pastor’s wife was miffed by the way she was confronted. “Don’t speak to me like that,” she said informing her husband that she’s a gold point member.
During the second interaction, the pastor walked up to his wife, handed her his phone and asked her to read the screen. “He gave her the finger,” the complaint said.
In the third confrontation, he “pushed in front of” his wife’s seatmate and attempted to swing his arm towards his wife. The wife later said that this was not the first incident and she was once left with a broken finger.
An FBI special agent, along with an Anchorage Airport Police officer, met the plane when it landed at 6:41 p.m., according to the complaint.
Holmberg’s wife, who was not noticeably bruised or bleeding, told authorities that her husband “had a history of abusing her,” and recounted the story about Holmberg having broken her finger last September, the complaint states. She said that Holmberg “struck her in the head with the back of his knuckles” aboard the plane, adding that Holmberg “knew [she] had epilepsy and that contact to [her] head could cause a seizure,” the complaint said.
The pastor said he was upset about his wife’s upgrade to first class because he wanted her to sit next to him. He said he didn’t hit her but simply tapped his wife on the head.