UPDATED 12/28, 7:50 a.m. ET: Patricia Cornwall, 51, is now facing a federal assault charge after an incident on a Delta flight from Tampa to Atlanta during which she allegedly hit and spit on on a fellow passenger.
Per CNN, Cornwall was accused of “assault by striking, beating, or wounding R.S.M. in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States” during an initial court appearance in Atlanta. Cornwall, if found guilty of the charge, potentially faces up to a year behind bars, as well as a fine of $100,000. While both the Atlanta Police Department and the FBI have thus far not confirmed that Cornwall is the woman seen in the viral footage included below, the latest report notes that that the video in question “appears to match” the details of that incident.
See original story below.
A physical alteration occurred on Dec. 23 on an Atlanta-bound Delta flight when a female passenger confronted an older man over his refusal to wear a mask on the plane. Patricia Cornwall can be seen in the video below from Atlanta Uncensored, demanding that the unidentified man put his mask on, while she keeps her own mask beneath her chin.
The two hurled expletive-laden insults at one another until a flight attendant threatens to have the police waiting for her at the gate upon their arrival at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Another flight attendant tries to restrain Cornwall, but once she struck and spit on the passenger, other people on the plane stepped in.
In a press release from the Atlanta Police Department, obtained by the Charlotte Observer, authorities went to the gate after getting a “disturbance call involving an unruly passenger.” Cornwall was initially detained, but an FBI agent was eventually called to the scene after officers conducted an assessment of the incident, which involved receiving statements from passengers and observing the injuries sustained by others aboard the plane, including flight attendants.
On a different Delta flight, two men were caught on camera fighting in the aisle while aboard the flight headed to Memphis from Los Angeles, TMZ reports.
A source claims many passengers had grown frustrated with the man in blue because he was not only sporadically wearing his mask, but he had also been drinking and was being loud. The other person involved in the fight reportedly told him, “You must be from L.A. because you think you’re better than everyone else.”
The situation escalated when one person told the other that they were a “horrible” person. “Police were called to the gate upon arrival,” Memphis Airport police told TMZ. “Officers interviewed both individuals involved in the altercation, and both declined to press charges against the other.” The two went to baggage claim at the same time, but stayed away from each other.
