A passenger was sentenced to four months in jail by an Arizona state court, followed by 36 months of supervised release, for spitting on another traveler and pushing a crew member on an American Airlines flight, a sentence that US authorities hope it will serve as a lesson and prevent more violent incidents on planes.
Kelly Pichardo, 32, of New York, pleaded guilty and was also sentenced to pay a fine of $9,123. Her companion, identified as Leeza S. Rodríguez, who also participated in the altercation, will be tried in November, the Arizona District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
The incident took place on an American Airlines flight between Dallas and Los Angeles in February 2021, coinciding with an unprecedented increase in reports of passenger misconduct, mostly in protest of the COVID-19 pandemic measures. The situation forced several airlines to temporarily suspend the sale of alcohol on their trips.
Reports of misconduct on planes have decreased after removing the mandatory use of masks last April. Even so, the prosecutors wanted Pichardo’s sentence to serve as a lesson and warning to avoid future altercations of this type, according to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the records, Pichardo and Rodríguez were traveling in first class when another passenger called them out for using racial slurs during their conversation. Pichardo spat on the traveler and then attacked the crew member who came over to try to control the situation.
The plane had to veer off course and land in Phoenix, Arizona, where both women were arrested. The investigation of the case was conducted by the FBI with assistance from the Phoenix Police Department.
“There is a line between rude conduct on an aircraft and criminal activity, and the defendant clearly crossed it. First class passengers are not exempt from prosecution (by law): the defendant’s verbal and physical intimidation disrupted the journey of passengers and crew alike,” said the District Attorney for the District of Arizona, Gary Restaino, in the notice.
In January 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it would reinforce its policy against rebellious passengers in response to the unprecedented increase in violent incidents against crew members. For the most part, the altercations took place after the refusal of travelers to follow the measures of mandatory use of masks.
The FAA then announced that it would go from issuing warnings to initiating criminal proceedings against people who assault, threaten, intimidate or interfere with the crew in the middle of a flight.
“Flight attendants are the front-line workers of aviation, not targets for angry passengers,” said the president of the Association of Flight Attendants of the United States, Sara Nelson, who ruled that “assaults during flights are crimes. feds, period.
In May 2021, a passenger repeatedly hit a flight attendant in the face, causing major injuries. A federal court in San Diego sentenced her to 15 months in jail and to pay nearly $26,000 in restitution, in addition to a $7,500 fine for the assault.
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