Under the cabin lights on an American Airlines plane set to depart from Miami International Airport Tuesday, a man’s bleeding head caught the attention of crew members.
They asked the man, identified as 27-year-old Eugenio Ernesto Hernandez-Garnier, to clean up the blood and replace his bandages, according to Local 10 News. He refused, along with his wife 32-year-old Yusleydis Blanca Loyola. Per the Local 10 report, the couple is from Las Vegas, Nev., where the flight was headed.
Crew members said they were concerned about Hernandez-Garnier’s medical condition and about body fluid contamination on the flight and asked him to address the issue or leave the plane multiple times. However, Hernandez-Garnier said he didn’t have clean bandages and also refused to leave the flight even when told by police that they would be arrested for trespassing, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department. Audacy reached out to the police department for more details.
“After a brief moment of resisting to be handcuffed, they were subsequently placed under arrest,” said reports cited by Local 10.
That outlet said Loyola posted a TikTok video in which she could be heard yelling that Hernandez-Garnier had just had surgery. According to The Independent, he had a hair transplant operation.
Medical Hair Transplant & Aesthetics of California said in a blog post about these procedures that “post-hair transplant care is extremely important for the best results.”
After care precautions recommended by Medical Hair Transplant & Aesthetics included refraining from sun exposure, refraining from scratching the scalp and refraining from wearing hats. It said that it can take three to four days for transplanted hair grafts to become secure after surgery and that patients must wait at least one month to get a haircut and that they should also refrain from wearing bandanas or scarfs for at least 10 to 15 days.
Police said that all other passengers on the flight had to deboard the plane due to the actions of the couple. That in turn caused the flight to be delayed.
Before Hernandez-Garnier and Loyola were transported to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, they were both taken to Jackson West Medical Center in Doral, Fla., to be evaluated for bleeding. Local 10 said they both face charges of trespassing after a warning and resisting an officer without violence.
American Airlines also confirmed the incident in a statement to The Independent.
“During boarding of American Airlines flight 1858 on Aug. 19 with service from Miami (MIA) to Las Vegas (LAS), two customers became disruptive and were non-compliant with crewmember instructions,” the spokesperson said.
After the incident, the flight took off Tuesday morning, The Independent reported.
Unruly passenger incidents recorded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reached a peak in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there were nearly 6,000 in a single year. Though they have decreased since then, these reports have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels and there have been nearly 1,400 reports already this year.