A California woman who beat a Southwest Airlines flight attendant so badly that three of the attendant’s teeth chipped has been charged with two federal felonies, the Washington Post reported.
Vyvianna Quinonez of Antelope, Calif, then aged 28, refused to put away her table tray and fasten her seatbelt May 23 as Southwest Flight 700 was making its final descent into San Diego International Airport, according to prosecutors who filed a federal complaint.
When a flight attendant reminded Quinonez to stow away her tray table, buckle her seat belt and wear her mask properly, Quinonez became defiant and allegedly began filming the Southwest employee. She later pushed the flight attendant, grabbed her hair and repeatedly punched her in the face, the complaint said.
After the flight landed, the flight attendant was taken to a hospital. Quinonez had chipped three of her teeth and two needed to be replaced by crowns. Additionally, prosecutors say her left eye was bruised and swollen and a cut under her eye required four stitches. Her right forearm bore a finger-shaped bruise.
Now, Quinonez faces federal charges for assault resulting in serious injury and for interference with a flight’s crew members and attendants. The first charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and the second is punishable by as many as 20, said the Washington Post. Quinonez is ordered to appear before a judge Sept. 17, according to court documents.
She initially told investigators that she acted in self-defense.
Video captured by another passenger shows how Quinonez suddenly sprang up and started punching the flight attendant with both hands while the woman was speaking to her in the back row of the airplane.
“Sit down,” an intervening passenger yelled. “Don’t you dare touch a flight attendant like that!”
After the passenger intervened, Quinonez sat down and stopped, as the flight attendant stood back with blood dripping down her face, said the Washington Post.
“We’ll go forward with the case and see what happens,” Quinonez’s attorney, Knut Johnson, told The Washington Post, declining to comment further.
Quinonez is also facing charges in state court, a San Diego County district attorney spokesperson told the Associated Press. Immediately following the altercation, the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department arrested Quinonez and booked her on a felony battery charge.
She is scheduled to appear in state court for those charges on Sept. 10, said the Associated Press.
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Apart from the violent outburst Quinonez had during the May 23 flight, there has been a spike in unruly passenger incidents on airplanes this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In an Aug. 19 press release, the administration said it had proposed more than $1 million in penalties since the beginning of the year.
The FAA can only impose fines and criminal penalties brought by federal prosecutors remain rare, Bloomberg News reported. For example, federal charges were filed in 16 cases in the year ending Oct. 1, 2020, according to the news outlet, and 20 the year before, according to the Washington Post.
A coalition of airline industry groups has called on the Justice Department to aggressively prosecute this year’s unruly passengers, said the outlet.
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