The video was recorded without the flight attendant's consent, meaning there could be serious legal repercussions if the person who posted it online is caught.
The Daily Mail first reported on Wednesday that two videos had been brought to the attention of Delta management by the flight attendant's colleagues, who found the footage and shared it among themselves first, cracking jokes about the encounter.
The two 4-minute-18-second videos, initially posted to Twitter but since removed, didn't name either person, but both are reportedly clearly identifiable, in particular the distinctive tattoos of 6-foot-4-inch male porn actor Austin Wolf. The two spent about eight minutes in the bathroom joining the "mile-high club" of people who have done the dirty at high altitude.
Delta bosses have since launched an investigation, and the employee has been suspended, pending a full investigation into a breach of the company's standards of behavior.
"This video does not reflect the standards of professionalism expected of our employees while representing the Delta brand or traveling as passengers on Delta aircraft,"a spokesperson for Delta told the Daily Mail.
Neither Wolf nor the flight attendant wanted to talk about the encounter, with the latter telling the Mail via WhatsApp, "I just want to be left alone please… I'm just trying to get my life back on track."
Wolf is known not only for his numerous adult films but also for working as a "rent boy" for $1,200 a night.
Delta staff also told the publication that they would be consulting legal experts about the application of revenge porn laws to the case.
About a half dozen countries, including the UK, Germany, Israel and Canada, as well as 40 states in the US and five in Australia, have passed laws criminalizing revenge pornography, also called image-based sexual abuse, which is when a "typically an abusive or vengeful ex-partner distributes explicit sexual images of their former partner without their consent," The Conversation reported in 2015, after the UK passed its law.
