Video shows woman punching attendant on California flight. ‘It was all bad,’ witness says.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A passenger seated a few rows away from a violent altercation on a flight from Sacramento to San Diego, in which a Sacramento County woman allegedly assaulted a Southwest flight attendant and knocked out two of her teeth, captured the first punch on video.

San Diego resident Michelle Manner told The Sacramento Bee in a phone interview that the punch was the culmination of a “two-sided” verbal argument that lasted most of the flight.

The incident happened Sunday on Southwest Flight 700, as it was preparing to land at San Diego International Airport after departing from Sacramento International Airport.

Manner shared with The Bee a 45-second cellphone video clip showing a woman, identified by Port of San Diego Harbor Police as Vyvianna Quinonez, 28, of Antelope, seated in an aisle seat in the last row of the plane with a flight attendant standing over her.

Manner’s video begins with the passenger seated to the right of Quinonez pointing at the flight attendant and saying, “We are gonna sue you.”

Moments later, Quinonez stood up and punched the flight attendant in the right side of her face, the video shows.

She threw several more punches that did not land as the flight attendant, who has not been identified, recoiled. Blood can be seen streaming down her cheek later in the video.

After the punch, a male passenger intervened between the two and began shouting at Quinonez, “Don’t you dare touch her!” as the passenger sat back down in her seat, Manner’s video showed.

“It was all bad. It was a very shaking experience,” Manner told The Bee. “The argument went both ways.”

Manner said that the passenger and flight attendant had a verbal argument just before it became physical, but that she did not capture that part of the altercation on camera.

Manner told Fox 40, who was first to broadcast the encounter, that Quinonez “had said to her three times, that we could hear, ‘Get off of me. Quit touching me. Get your hands off of me.’”

Manner claimed the flight attendant “was nothing but provocative, leaning over the lady (Quinonez) on the aisle seat” during the flight. The crew member was “very rude and unprofessional the whole flight,” though Manner said that doesn’t excuse the violence and was sad to hear the attendant was injured.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz told The Bee in an emailed statement Tuesday that the passenger had “repeatedly ignored standard in-flight instructions ... and became verbally and physically abusive upon landing.” He confirmed law enforcement took the passenger into custody upon arrival in San Diego.

Mainz said the argument preceding the alleged assault was over standard flight instructions issued upon landing and “not mask-related.” Masks are federally required on airplanes due to COVID-19.

However, Manner claims the argument did involve masks, at least in part. She alleged that the flight attendant told Quinonez to put back on her mask, which she was wearing but was not covering her nose, as seen in the video.

Video from another bystander, posted to Facebook but later removed, showed Quinonez being led off the plane by a Harbor Police officer. She was not in handcuffs.

Harbor Police in a Tuesday news release said the passenger “struck the flight attendant, causing serious injuries.” She was booked Sunday into Las Colinas Detention Facility on a charge of felony battery causing serious bodily injury but was released the same day after posting $35,000 bond, records show.

Neither San Diego Superior Court nor federal court records as of Thursday morning showed Quinonez facing criminal charges. Quinonez did not return calls for comment by The Bee, but told CBS8 in San Diego that she acted in self-defense and would not speak further about the incident without an attorney present.

The president of TWU Local 556, the union of Southwest flight attendants, wrote in a letter to airline CEO Gary Kelly that the attendant in Sunday’s incident had serious injuries to her face and lost two of her teeth. The union president, Lyn Montgomery, urged Kelly to demand the federal government provide a higher number of federal air marshals on Southwest flights.

Montgomery said the attendant, whom she did not want to identify, is recovering.