A passenger was arrested for unruly behavior on a US airline after a video appeared of him physically torturing an elderly man on a Delta flight.
In a video tweeted by ATL Uncensored, the woman stood in the aisle to make a scathing attack with a senior male passenger sitting in his seat. “Put on your f-mask!” He shouted, cursing a male passenger as they exchanged heated words, while not wearing his mask properly.
“Sit down, Karen!” The man replied. “Mask up!” He continued to which he shouted back and asked her to do the same. She also held a water bottle, saying that he was “eating and drinking.”
In the US, the mask mandate requires passengers to wear face masks on airplanes, with the exception of when eating or drinking. The situation escalated when the man abused the woman and a flight attendant tried to intervene, as the woman said she would put on her mask when the man put on her.
According to USA Today, the woman in question allegedly slapped the man in the face. When he shouted again, she was seen spitting on him before being taken away.
On December 23, an “uncontrolled” passenger was taken into police custody after a fight on Flight 2790 traveling from Tampa, Florida to Atlanta. Atlanta police in a statement identified the passenger as Patricia Yannett Cornwall.
“The disturbance caused injuries to fellow passengers and Delta employees,” according to Atlanta police, who took the woman into custody after the plane landed and handed her over to the FBI, which is handling the case.
Delta said in a statement on Monday: “Flight 2790 from Tampa to Atlanta was detected by law enforcement after an uncontrolled customer disturbance during flight. Situations like these are rare for the vast majority of our customers and Delta is operating at our airports.” And our aircraft have zero tolerance for unruly behavior.
Although the nearly two-minute video captured by a third passenger indicates that the point of tampering was the mask, the complaint, identified only as RSM, said the argument escalated after Cornwall called Rosa Parks, the The Washington Post reported. The man said it was unfair for Cornwall to compare itself to Parks, the civil rights pioneer who refused to sit in the back of a different Alabama bus.
The complaint states that Cornwall made Parks’ remarks while returning from the bathroom from a flight attendant when the crew asked her to find an open seat until the drink service was completed.
“What am I? Rosa Parks?” According to the complaint, Cornwall, who is White, said. Upon hearing the remarks, the complaint said, the male passenger in the 37C seat told Cornwall, “It was an inappropriate remark and that ‘Ain’t Black… It’s not Alabama and it’s not Bus’.” ,
NBC News reported that Cornwall, who appeared in court, was charged with “assault while on board,” according to a criminal complaint released Monday and filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.