During a flight in California, a passenger attacked a flight attendant and knocked out her teeth

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant was attacked by a passenger and lost two teeth over the weekend, according to a letter the flight attendant union sent to the airline's CEO urging him to take additional precautions in connection with the resumption of travel. Writes about it USA Today.

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“Last weekend, one of our flight attendants was seriously assaulted, resulting in facial injuries and the loss of two teeth,” said a letter from Lyn Montgomery, president of TWU Local 556. “We cannot tolerate such violence.”

The union said there were 8 code of conduct incidents on Southwest Airlines between April 15 and May 477.

“This unprecedented number of incidents has reached unacceptable levels, and incidents of passenger non-compliance have also become more aggressive in nature,” Montgomery said.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz confirmed that a passenger physically assaulted a flight attendant when Southwest Flight 700 from Sacramento landed in San Diego on Sunday morning, May 23rd.

“The passenger repeatedly ignored standard flight instructions and became verbally and physically abusive to the flight attendant upon boarding,” Mainz said. — Law enforcement officers were asked to meet the flight upon arrival, and the passenger was taken into custody. We do not condone or tolerate verbal or physical abuse of our flight crews, who are responsible for the safety of our passengers."

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The union said it is seeking guarantees from the airline.

"Today's travel environment requires a new level of firmness in both tone and direction to ensure proper cabin control as the attitudes and behavior of the flying public have unfortunately declined," Montgomery's letter said.

She said Southwest flight attendants do their best to enforce mask rules and other flight rules, but need support from management when they point out unruly behavior from passengers: “Often, appropriate actions to maintain a safe environment are mistakenly perceived as unkind or inhospitable. As alcohol sales return in this already volatile environment, you can certainly understand our concerns.”

In a letter, the union suggests Southwest Airlines:

• better educate passengers that misbehavior could lead them to be blacklisted by Southwest travelers and possible fines, criminal charges and possible jail time;
• be consistent in policy: “No passenger should be removed from one flight only to be allowed to board the next Southwest Airlines flight after a disruptive incident. We request you to take a firm stand so that unruly passengers cannot travel with us. Dot";
• require the US government to increase the number of federal air marshals on flights and require them to “participate and take action” when crew members are threatened.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has drawn attention to the rise in misbehaving passengers by adopting a zero-tolerance policy in January and extending it in March to keep it in effect throughout the pandemic.

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Since January 1, the agency said it has received about 2500 reports of unruly passenger behavior, including about 1900 reports of passengers refusing to comply with federal mask requirements.

The agency offered hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines back in May.

Airlines have also added travelers to their internal no-fly lists, but Southwest has not released data on how many passengers were on the list in 2021.

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