Californian woman who punched a Southwest flight attendant is jailed for 15 months

Blog
Californian woman who punched a Southwest flight attendant is jailed for 15 months | Secret Flying

Woman gets 15 months in prison for punching flight attendant.

 

A Californian woman who punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant in the face, breaking her teeth, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.

 

Vyvianna Quinonez, 29, will also have to pay nearly $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 fine for the attack, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

 

Judge Todd W. Robinson also ordered Quinonez to be on supervised release for three years after completing her sentence, during which she will be barred from flying on any commercial aircraft.

 

The incident occurred in May last year onboard flight WN700 from Sacramento to San Diego.

 

On the flight, Quinonez caught the attention of cabin crew when she refused to wear her seat belt, pulled down her tray table when asked not to, and did not wear her face mask properly.

 

She then began recording the cabin crew with her cell phone as they argued, before pushing one of the flight attendants and then punching her in the face and yanking her hair.

 

The entire assault was also captured on a cell phone from another passenger.

 

The flight attendant suffered three chipped teeth, two of which needed crowns, and a cut under her left eye that required stitches.

 

During her trial, Quinonez apologized for assaulting the flight attendant, saying she had been depressed and humiliated because of the negative attention. The experience, she said, “changed me profoundly.”

 

In a letter addressed to Judge Robinson, a Southwest representative said that the company wanted the sentence to serve as a deterrent to unruly and violent behaviour.

 

“What happened on Flight 700 was absolutely horrific,” wrote Sonya Lacore, a vice president 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.