Multiple flight attendants have, over the last year, sounded the alarm over a sharp increase in passengers who get belligerent, resistant of rules or outright violent.
JetBlue Airways (JBLU) flight attendant and president of a Transportation Workers Union Local 579 branch Tyesha Best once described to TheStreet how a passenger who was told he could not use the lavatories during turbulence peed in an empty bottle and started waving it around while calling the flight attendants onboard the c-word.
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The latest incident that surely made some flight attendants question what they are doing on the job occurred on a Sep. 9 Frontier Airlines (FRON) flight to San Francisco from California's Orange County. Fremont resident Charles Angel Salva, 30, reportedly shouted "we are all going to hell" and "this airplane is going down" before lunging at a flight attendant who tried to restrain him.
This is what went down on that fateful flight to San Francisco
"Salva allegedly began yelling obscenities at flight attendants and said, 'we are all going to hell,' and 'this airplane is going down,'" the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, writes in a description of the incident. “Salva then grabbed at fellow passengers and ran towards the rear of the airplane when flight attendants tried to restrain him. Salva allegedly then attempted to choke a flight attendant, leaving two small marks on the victim's neck."
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The description suggests that Salva suffered a mental illness-related breakdown as he "appeared claustrophobic and seemed like he wanted to get off the plane."
The incident escalated after flight attendants noticed than oxygen masks had been released from one of the overhead compartments because Salva had opened it just as the plane was climbing to 10,000 feet. He was also described as "getting his hand stuck there in the process before a passenger helped him free his hand."
As Salva grew increasingly violent (he kicked another flight attendant in the leg six times and broke free of the flexicuffs that had been placed on him), the plane ended up getting diverted to Ontario International Airport (ONT) "because the flight attendants did not feel safe trying to put Salva back in his seat."
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'Kicked one flight attendant approximately six times in the leg'
“During the incident, Salva kicked one flight attendant approximately six times in the leg, causing apparent bruising and swelling, which required medical attention,” the Justice Department wrote further.
Salva was eventually led off the plane by law enforcement and charged with interference of flight crew members and attendant; a charge that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.
Assistant United States Attorney Cory L. Burleson of the Riverside Branch Office has been chosen as the prosecutor for the case; a court date has not yet been set.
This week, a passenger who caused a Qantas Airways (QUBSF) -owned Jetstar flight from Perth to Sydney to be diverted because he got drunk and belligerent was ordered by an Australian court to reimburse the jet fuel that was lost when the flight had to get diverted back to Perth: $8,630 Australian dollars or just over $5,760 USD.
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