Passenger Exposed Buttocks and Threw a Can During Flight, Prosecutors Say

On Wednesday, an American Airlines flight from Miami to London turned around about an hour into its journey because of a passenger who refused to wear a mask, the airline said.

In October, a passenger was accused of punching an American Airlines flight attendant in her nose, giving her a concussion, after a mask dispute. And in December, a California woman pleaded guilty to repeatedly punching a flight attendant on a Southwest Airlines flight, bloodying her face and chipping three teeth.

“Over the past year, we had seen a dramatic uptick in unruly passenger incidents, and we’ve undertaken a number of measures to get that under control,” Steve Dickson, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said during an online discussion this week.

“And I’m happy to say that the rates are down significantly, year over year, but we’ve still got more work to do,” Mr. Dickson said. “And this is, again, something that we need to continue to stay focused on.”

In a statement filed in court, an F.B.I. agent said that Mr. McInerney had refused to wear a mask despite being asked to do so “dozens” of times during the eight-hour flight. He threw an empty beverage can, hitting another passenger in the head, and kicked the seat back in front of him, disturbing the passenger there, the statement said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/us/covid-flight-passenger-violent.html