A California lady who admitted punching a Southwest Airlines flight attendant after being requested to put on a mask and fasten her seatbelt was sentenced to 15 months in jail Friday and ordered to pay greater than $30,000 in fines and restitution, officers mentioned.
Vyvianna Quinonez, 29, will stay on supervised launch for 3 years and attend anger administration lessons for the May 23, 2021, assault aboard a flight from Sacramento to San Diego, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California mentioned in a launch.
Quinonez will even be barred from flying on business planes whereas below supervision, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
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Quinonez pleaded responsible in December to one depend of interference with flight crew members and attendants, the discharge mentioned.
She admitted assaulting the flight attendant, who suffered two damaged teeth and wanted three stitches, after the employee advised her to placed on her seat belt, stow her tray desk and put on her mask appropriately through the flight’s closing descent, the discharge mentioned.
Quinonez’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The punishment got here after a crackdown on what federal officers described as a spike in studies of unruly and harmful habits in the skies, a lot of it over masking.
The surge has since fallen, in accordance to FAA information, although the variety of studies investigated by the division stays above pre-pandemic ranges.