[ad_1]
SAN DIEGO — A California girl who punched a Southwest Airways flight attendant within the face throughout a flight, breaking her tooth, has been sentenced to fifteen months in federal jail.
Vyvianna Quinonez was additionally ordered Tuesday by the federal choose in San Diego to pay almost $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 nice for the assault on a Could 23, 2021, Southwest flight between Sacramento and San Diego.
The 29-year-old Sacramento girl is prohibited from flying for 3 years whereas she is on supervised launch and should take part in anger administration courses or counseling.
Quinonez final 12 months pleaded responsible to 1 depend of interference with flight crew members and attendants, admitting she punched the flight attendant within the face and head with a closed fist and grabbed her hair. Neither she nor her lawyer might be reached for remark Tuesday.
Throughout the flight’s last descent, the attendant had requested Quinonez to buckle her seat belt, stow her tray desk, and placed on her facemask correctly.
As an alternative, Quinonez started recording the attendant on her cellphone, pushed her, then stood up and punched the girl within the face and grabbed her hair earlier than different passengers intervened, authorities mentioned.
The assault was recorded on one other passenger’s cellphone.
The plea settlement mentioned that the flight attendant suffered three chipped tooth, two of which wanted crowns, together with bruises and a lower beneath her left eye that wanted stitches.
“Assaults on flight crew members, who carry out important jobs to make sure passenger security, is not going to be tolerated,” U.S. Legal professional Randy Grossman mentioned in an announcement after the sentencing.
FBI Particular Agent in Cost Stacey Moy mentioned the sentence ought to “ship a really robust message to air vacationers — the FBI will vigorously pursue anybody who assaults or interferes with flight crews.”
The incident was a part of an escalation in unruly conduct by airline passengers amid the coronavirus pandemic and led the president of the flight attendants’ union to ask for extra federal air marshals on planes.
Airways in 2021 reported greater than 5,000 incidents of unruly passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Most had been passengers refusing to comply with the federal requirement for passengers to put on face masks whereas on planes, however almost 300 concerned intoxicated passengers, the FAA mentioned.
[ad_2]
Source link