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A senior airline pilot charged with standing naked in front of his window at an airport hotel denies he was “gyrating and waving” and says he had no idea that passengers inside the terminal plaza were watching him.

The United Airlines pilot, who faces a charge of indecent exposure following the incident at Denver International Airport, says the first he knew of any problem was when a squad of police, with guns drawn, banged at the door of his hotel room to arrest him.

A US federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer in the air terminal told police the pilot waved at him from the 10th floor of the Westin Hotel while “touching himself”, according to a police report cited by Newsweek.

The pilot, aged 54, is a 22-year veteran with the airline. He has called the TSA officer’s account “absurd”.

In an interview with The Denver Post, the pilot conceded that some witnesses had said he was “dancing, gyrating and waving” in front of the window, but said they were wrong.

“I’m completely innocent. It’s really unfortunate that it happened at all.”

The pilot stands accused of knowingly and wilfully exposing his genitals to passengers during the incident three months ago.

“The suspect did open the window to his hotel room, which overlooks the hotel plaza, and in full view of the public did stand in his window fully nude, exposing himself and his genitalia to the general public,” the police report says.

The Westin Hotel is adjacent to Denver International Airport’s Jeppesen Terminal.

The pilot insists he was unaware he could be seen from the airport terminal. He claims to have been awake for over 30 hours after several flights were diverted by severe thunderstorms. He woke at about 10.30am and opened the curtain of his hotel room, unaware he could be seen.

The Westin at Denver International Airport

His attorney says it was all a matter of lighting and his client the pilot “had a reasonable expectation that no one could see into his window” as he made an important phone call while walking around naked.

“There is zero evidence of any sexual activity demonstrating an intent to arouse or to satisfy the sexual desire of any person,” the attorney told The Denver Post, adding that police had entered the hotel room without a warrant and the Denver District Attorney was likely to dismiss the case.

While the pilot told the paper he had not been suspended from work, United Airlines said he had been “removed from his duties pending an internal review. We are cooperating with authorities on their investigation”.

Written by Peter Needham