Ms. Quinonez, who was sitting in an aisle seat, stood up and punched the attendant within the face a number of instances, in response to the video. She additionally grabbed her hair earlier than the lady was in a position to transfer again up the aisle. A number of passengers grabbed at Ms. Quinonez’s garments to attempt to cease her.
Prosecutors mentioned the flight attendant, who was not named in court docket paperwork, was taken to a hospital with accidents that included a swollen eye, a bruised arm and a minimize beneath her eye that needed to be stitched. They mentioned she additionally had three chipped enamel, two of which had to get replaced with crowns.
In response to court docket paperwork, Ms. Quinonez sought a sentence of time served whereas prosecutors had requested 4 months in custody and 6 months in dwelling confinement. In imposing the longer sentence, Decide Robinson “strongly thought-about the necessity for basic deterrence,” Jaclyn Stahl, an assistant U.S. lawyer, mentioned in an electronic mail.
“He defined that the victims included not simply the flight attendant sufferer and Southwest Airways, however all passengers on the airplane that day and flight attendants working within the business,” Ms. Stahl mentioned.
In a letter dated Could 18 and addressed to Decide Robinson, a Southwest consultant mentioned that the corporate needed the sentence to function a deterrent to unruly and violent habits. The letter mentioned that the corporate’s govt group had heard from “numerous flight attendants” who felt beneath assault throughout a pandemic that pushed concern round journey to an all-time excessive.
“What occurred on Flight 700 was completely horrific,” wrote Sonya Lacore, a vp at Southwest. “In my 20+ yr profession at Southwest, I’ve by no means seen such an inexcusable, violent assault of a flight attendant by a passenger. Even worse, the incident was captured on video and forged throughout tv and media channels.”
“The video of the assault nonetheless sickens me,” she added.
Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed reporting.
