Beside him, the flight attendant is seen with blood running down her face.įollowing the altercation, Southwest announced it was pushing back its plans to resume alcohol service onboard flights, citing "the recent uptick in industry-wide incidents of passenger disruptions inflight."Īt the time of the incident, Southwest told Insider, "We do not condone or tolerate verbal or physical abuse of our Flight Crews, who are responsible for the safety of our passengers." "Don't you dare touch a flight attendant like that," the man tells the passenger. The video documenting the incident showed the woman striking the flight attendant several times before another passenger steps in to stop her. According to national records maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration, in 2019 the agency docked 146 investigations into unruly passengers while in 2021 that skyrocketed to 1099.įor the 2022 year, it appears to be on track for keeping up with the previous year’s record, as approaching the halfway mark of the calendar year that agency has initiated 470 investigations into unruly or dangerous passenger behaviour.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. Nationally, a similar trend has been playing out but has noticeably intensified since post-pandemic travel began taking off. The addition of Covid-19 travel restrictions seemed to only pour gasoline on an already omnipresent threat of unruly passengers.Īccording to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), incidents have been steadily rising since 2012, with the agency attributing most to be caused by intoxication and non-compliance with safety regulations. The May 2021 attack on the Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento International Airport came at a time when airline employees were increasingly facing attacks from unruly and, at times, violent passengers. “My mistakes were broadcasted nationwide news and I have been completely disappointed and ashamed of myself,” she wrote in a letter, included in court documents. The defendant, for her part, attempted to sway the judge into delivering a lighter sentence by penning a handwritten letter from her jail cell, which highlighted the “challenges” she’d faced since the footage of her attack went viral and how she took “full responsibility for actions”. “Given the widespread news coverage of this incident, Southwest hopes that the ultimate sentence imposed in this matter will serve as a deterrent for others who may contemplate engaging in similar dangerous behaviour.” “This specific passenger created a situation onboard Flight 700 that jeopardised the entire flight, and created an unsafe environment,” the executive wrote. In a letter to the sentencing judge, a Southwest executive laid out why they believed that given the high-profile nature of the assault, which they characterised as “sickening”, it should be met with serious consequences. General deterrence was also an angle earmarked by Southwest Airlines. “He explained that the victims included not just the flight attendant victim and Southwest Airlines, but all passengers on the plane that day and flight attendants working in the industry,” said Jacklyn Stahl in an email to The Times. Part of the presiding judge’s impetus for handing down the 18-month sentence to the 29-year-old, an assistant for the US attorney told The New York Times, was a strong consideration for “general deterrence”. Ms Quinonez was also ordered to pay a $7,500 fine. She was also left with swelling on her face and bruising and a cut under her left eye. Passengers onboard the flight could be seen in the video trying to disarm the angry passenger, but she still managed to pull the hair of the employee and cause her serious injury.Ĭourt documents from the prosecution later revealed that the airline worker was taken to hospital after the flight and required two of her teeth to be replaced by crowns, while three of her teeth were chipped and needed to be repaired by surgery. In the video, Ms Quinonez can be seen getting up from her aisle seat and crossing over to throw several punches at the flight attendant, most of which land square in her face. Ms Quinonez initially filmed the altercation with the flight attendant, who was unnamed in the court documents, and then a separate video surfaced which caught the subsequent attack on the Southwest Airlines employee.
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