United Air faces fresh PR nightmare after picking on gay dad

United Airlines has flown into another public relations storm after flight attendants accused a gay man of inappropriately touching his son on a North Carolina-bound flight.

Henry Amador-Batten has sued the airline after a flight attendant accused him of having his hand too close to his 5-year-old son's genitals on a flight from Newark to his home in North Carolina.

The incident occurred on a 20 May flight from Newark to Raleigh-Durham. According to a Raleigh-Durham International Airport police report, flight attendants aboard the flight told police they observed a male passenger with his hands "near the genitals" of a boy.

The 53-year-old father was pulled aside and questioned by police when the flight landed, CNN reported. Amador-Batten told authorities that he had placed his hand on the boy's lap to comfort him since he was afraid of flying.

He told The New York Post that after he was wrongly questioned, an airline representative called him to offer what he referred to as an "apology".

"It was not an apology," he said. "She just wanted to make the problem go away. She asked me if I would keep it 'low key'" to help her keep her job. I don't know how anyone could consider that an apology."

After Amador-Batten got off the plane at the Raleigh-Durham, police told him about the flight attendant's complaint, spoke to him and then quickly let him go.

He thinks it's ''very possible'' the attendant singled him out because he's gay.

''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 said. ''Somehow he didn't like what he saw.''

Amador-Batten said he has been a stay-at-home dad since he and his husband adopted Ben. Before that, he worked as a hairdresser.

The distressed father told reporters that he has hired a lawyer, Florida-based Kenneth Padowitz, and is thinking of suing the airline.

United apologised for the incident, saying in a statement to CNN that it was a "misunderstanding".

"Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect and we have followed up with our customer to apologise for the misunderstanding," United said.

United's recent problems began when it called airport police to drag a passenger off one of its planes in Chicago on 9 April because he refused to give up his seat after being informed the flight had been overbooked.

The airline faced public backlash after a video emerged of the passenger being violently dragged off its plane after he refused to give up his seat when he was informed the flight was overbooked. The passenger, identified as David Dao, was left with a concussion, broken nose and lost teeth. Dao and United came to an undisclosed settlement.