HONOLULU -- A Pearl Harbor-based sailor was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 13-year-old girl on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Hawaii to Arizona.

A flight attendant said she thought something didn't look right and stepped in, which is what started the investigation in this case.

Hawaiian Airlines said the incident is "disturbing," and as soon as its crew became suspicious that something wasn't right, they took action.

Hawaiian said the girl was traveling with one of her parents, and they were originally seated together on the plane, but they moved to other seats because the flight was not full.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Phoenix federal court, the incident happened on a Hawaiian Airlines flight that departed Honolulu for Arizona Thursday night.

The complaint said the girl was in a window seat and Shawn Michael Cole, 40, was seated on the aisle.

The complaint said the girl told Cole she was 13 years old and in the eighth grade, that they watched a movie on his laptop computer and then watched an in-flight movie together.

With blankets on both their laps, the girl said she was resting with her eyes closed when she felt Cole sexually grope her both inside and outside her underwear, as he fondled himself.

According to the criminal complaint, the girl "pretended to be asleep during the incident because she was afraid."

The complaint says a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant "saw Cole caressing the victim -- who he believed to be asleep -- around her upper and lower lips with his right hand."

The flight attendant confronted Cole, who said he was traveling with the victim, but when the attendant asked the girl if she knew Cole, she said "no."

The attendant moved the girl to another seat and an investigation began, authorities said.

When the Hawaiian plane landed Friday at Phoenix's airport, Cole was arrested. That's where police said he initially denied physical contact and said he only touched the girl in an attempt to wake her before the plane landed. A short time later, police said he changed his story and admitted he had fondled himself while sitting next to the girl.

Cole is stationed aboard the USS Olympia submarine at Pearl Harbor, where he's a chief storekeeper. Sources say he was on vacation and may have been traveling to visit his mother, who lives in Arizona.

Prosecutors said the man is married with young children, and his wife told them that she will not allow him back to their house in Hawaii because of his arrest.

Prosecutors asked a federal magistrate in Phoenix to hold him without bail.

A hearing on that is set for next Thursday.

In the meantime, he remains in federal custody in Arizona.