Michigan ? A Northwest Airlines flight was canceled because the pilot was yelling obscenities during a cell phone conversation while people were boarding and cursed at one passenger, a federal official said Saturday.

The pilot of the Las Vegas-to-Detroit flight was apparently in a heated cell phone conversation in the cockpit, then went into a lavatory, locked the door and continued the conversation, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said Saturday.

Las Vegas police were sent Friday to McCarran International Airport to investigate, Gregor said. Authorities were told that the pilot cursed at one passenger who confronted him, Gregor said.

The name of the captain, whom Gregor described as a veteran pilot, wasn’t released.

Gregor said Northwest removed the pilot from the aircraft and returned him to his home base in Detroit for an investigation. He said it was up to Northwest to determine what would happen to the pilot.