SAN DIEGO (Washington Insider Magazine) -A California woman was sentenced 15 months in federal penitentiary for punching a Southwest Airlines flight attendant in the face on a flight, damaging her teeth.
According to ABC NEWS, Vyvianna Quinonez was also ordered by a federal court in San Diego on Tuesday to pay a $7,500 fine and almost $26,000 in damages for the violence on a Southwest flight between San Diego and Sacramento on May 23, 2021.
While on monitored parole, the 29-year-old Sacramento woman is barred from flying for 3 years and is required to attend anger management programmes or counseling.
Quinonez admitted to punching a flight attendant in the head and face with a clenched fist and grabbing her hair when she pleaded guilty to one charge of misbehaving with flight attendants and crew members last year. She and her lawyer could not be contacted for comment on Tuesday.
Quinonez was requested to put on her facemask appropriately, fold her tray table, and fasten her seatbelt during the flight’s landing approach.
Quinonez instead started recording the attendant on her smartphone, shoved her, stood up, hit her in the face, and pulled her hair before any other travelers intervened, according to investigators.
Another passenger’s cellphone captured the assault.
The attendant sustained 3 chipped teeth, 2 of which required crowns, as well as cuts and bruises below her left eye that required stitches, according to the plea bargain.
Attacks on flight crew members, who perform critical tasks to guarantee passenger safety, will not be tolerated, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman after the sentencing.
The punishment, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy, should send a clear message to airline travelers that anyone who attacks or disrupts flight staff will be vigorously pursued by the FBI.
The event was part of an uptick in disorderly behavior among air travelers as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, prompting the head of the flight attendants’ union to request extra federal air marshals aboard planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration received more than 5,000 reports of disruptive passengers from airlines in 2021.
The majority of the incidents were passengers who refused to comply with the federal rule that travelers wear face masks while on flights, but over 300 included intoxicated people, according to the FAA.
