A flight attendant on a Southwest Airlines flight was assaulted after making a simple request of a passenger in a shocking moment caught on video by another passenger.
The plane was landing in San Diego after a flight from Sacramento when the incident occurred. A woman got up from her seat as the plane was still taxiing. The flight attendant asked her to sit down and put her seatbelt on. The reasonable request was met with rage from passenger, who proceeded to punch the flight attendant in the face once, then several more times.
Another passenger stepped in to break the flight attendant away from the woman. The flight attendant was bleeding from a cut on her face. She also lost her two front teeth.
"It's just sad to me that America is so frustrated right now. People don't want to be told what to do," said passenger Michelle Manner, who filmed the shocking moment.
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Vyvianna Quinonez, 28, was escorted off the flight by police and arrested on the charge of battery causing serious bodily injury. She pleaded guilty to the attack in December 2021 as part of a plea deal. By later January 2022, she had violated her parole by being arrested for a DUI. She is scheduled to be sentenced in May 2022; she faces a maximum fine of $250,000 and up to 20 years in prison.
Sadly, assaults on flight attendants have risen significantly since pandemic restrictions began. The Federal Aviation Administration usually handles 150 incidents of unruly passengers in a full year but had already seen 2,500 cases as of the time of this incident in May 2021, just about halfway through the year.
