Woman Gets 15 Months in Prison for Punching Flight Attendant in the Face & More News Here

A California lady who repeatedly punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant final 12 months, bloodying her face and chipping three of her enamel, was sentenced on Friday to 15 months in federal jail, prosecutors stated.

The lady, Vyvianna M. Quinonez, 29, of Sacramento, may also need to pay almost $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 tremendous, in accordance with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. A video of the assault, which occurred in May 2021, was broadly considered on social media.

Judge Todd W. Robinson of United States District Court additionally ordered Ms. Quinonez to be on supervised launch for three years after finishing her sentence, throughout which she might be barred from flying on any industrial plane.

The assault got here amid a surge of unruly and violent habits by passengers who shoved, struck and yelled at flight attendants. Within days of the assault, two main airways, American and Southwest, postponed plans to start serving alcohol once more on flights, in an effort to cease the habits. Both airways have since resumed alcohol gross sales.

“Violence on aircraft endangers the lives of all onboard,” Randy Grossman, the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California, stated in a press release on Friday. “Attacks on flight crew members, who perform vital jobs to ensure passenger safety, will not be tolerated.”

A lawyer for Ms. Quinonez, who pleaded responsible in December in reference to the assault, couldn’t instantly be reached for remark late Friday.

In a letter filed with the courtroom on May 20, Ms. Quinonez apologized for assaulting the flight attendant. She stated she had been depressed and humiliated due to the unfavorable consideration. The expertise, she stated, “changed me profoundly.”

On May 23, 2021, close to the finish of a flight from Sacramento to San Diego, a flight attendant requested Ms. Quinonez to buckle her seatbelt, put up her tray desk and “wear her face mask properly,” prosecutors stated.

Ms. Quinonez used her cellphone to movie the flight attendant and pushed the lady, prosecutors stated. The assault escalated from there, as captured on video by one other passenger.

Ms. Quinonez, who was sitting in an aisle seat, stood up and punched the attendant in the face a number of occasions, in accordance with the video. She additionally grabbed her hair earlier than the lady was in a position to transfer again up the aisle. Several passengers grabbed at Ms. Quinonez’s garments to attempt to cease her.

Prosecutors stated the flight attendant, who was not named in courtroom 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 stated she additionally had three chipped enamel, two of which had to get replaced with crowns.

In a letter dated May 18 and addressed to Judge Robinson, a Southwest consultant stated that the firm needed the sentence to function a deterrent to unruly and violent habits. The letter stated that the firm’s government crew had heard from “countless flight attendants” who felt beneath assault throughout a pandemic that pushed worry round journey to an all-time excessive.

“What happened on Flight 700 was absolutely horrific,” wrote Sonya Lacore, a vice chairman at Southwest. “In my 20+ year career at Southwest, I have never seen such an inexcusable, violent assault of a flight attendant by a passenger. Even worse, the incident was captured on video and cast across television and media channels.”

“The video of the assault still sickens me,” she added.