A woman who posted a viral video of a man punching the back of her airplane seat after she reclined it said Monday she wants to file assault charges against him and she wants an American Eagle flight attendant who did not heed her complaints to lose her job.
"The hits just kept on coming, literally and figuratively, from the guy, then the flight attendant," the passenger, Wendi Williams told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
Williams said she started taking video of the man who was punching her seat because a flight attendant was not doing anything to make him stop, and she said she's the victim of an assault.
"I was leaving a teacher's conference and we got onto the plane and the man behind me, as soon as we got in the air, I reclined and he asked me if … I would put my seat back up while he ate, which I did," Williams said. But when he was finished eating, she put her seat back, and that's when he started hitting it.
Williams added that once she got the flight attendant for American Eagle, a subsidiary of American Airlines, to come around, the woman "had an attitude" with her and asked her to delete her video of the man hitting her seat.
"She went back to him, like changed personalities, and was the kindest person in the world," said Williams. "She said 'Oh, are you OK? It's really tight back here.'"
Williams also claimed that the flight attendant threatened to remove her from the airplane if she didn't delete her video, and handed her a "passenger disturbance notice" warning her of federal prosecution.
American Airlines said in a statement, "We are aware of a customer dispute that transpired on American Eagle flight 4392, operated by Republic Airways on January 31. The safety and comfort of our customers and team members is our top priority, and our team is looking into the issue."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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