A woman is sentenced to 15 months in prison for punching a flight attendant.
A woman from California was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for punching a Southwest Airlines flight attendant in the face.
According to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, Vyvianna Quinonez will have to pay nearly $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 fine for the attack.
Quinonez will be barred from flying on any commercial aircraft for three years after completing her sentence, because Judge Todd W. Robinson ordered her to be on supervised release.
There was an incident on the flight from Sacramento to San Diego.
Quinonez caught the attention of the 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 began recording the cabin crew with her cell phone as they argued, before punching one of the flight attendants in the face and yanking her hair.
The assault was captured on a cell phone.
Two of the flight attendant's teeth needed crowns and she had a cut under her left eye.
Quinonez apologized for attacking the flight attendant, saying she had been depressed and humiliated because of the negative attention. She said that the experience changed her profoundly.
Southwest wanted the sentence to serve as a deterrent to unruly and violent behavior, according to a letter addressed to Judge Robinson.
Sonya Lacore, a vice president at Southwest, wrote that what happened on Flight 700 was horrible.
I have worked for Southwest for 20 years and have never seen a passenger assault a flight attendant. The incident was captured on video and broadcasted across television and media channels.
The video of the assault still sickens her.
New video shows an altercation between Vyvianna Quinonez and a Southwest Airlines flight attendant. A union representative says the flight attendant lost two teeth when she was struck. Quinonez who was arrested on battery charges claims it was self-defense. pic.twitter.com/aCAHGHxF5b
— CBS 8 San Diego (@CBS8) May 26, 2021
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