Southwest Airlines employees get treatment after a passenger attack in Dallas

Southwest Airlines employees get treatment after a passenger attack in Dallas

The airline said a passenger assaulted a Southwest Airlines employee on Saturday afternoon after a "verbal altercation."

The accident occurred while boarding Southwest Flight 4976 from Dallas Love Field to LaGuardia Airport in New York.

Dallas police said the passenger boarded the plane around 12:40 p.m. She headed straight to the back, where she quarreled with a flight attendant who told her to get off the plane.

Police said the passenger then walked to the front of the plane and verbally clashed with another Southwest employee before punching him in the head.

Police arrested the passenger, who faced a charge of aggravated assault.

Police said the victim, who was identified by Southwest Airlines as an operations worker only, was in the hospital.

A passenger hit a Southwest flight attendant on a May 23 flight from Sacramento, California, to San Diego. According to court documents, the flight attendant lost her teeth and had other injuries to her face.

The incident, which represented an escalation in the unruly behavior of airline passengers, prompted the head of the flight attendants' union to order more FAAs on board the planes.

"The unprecedented number of accidents has reached an intolerable level, with passenger non-compliance events becoming more aggressive in nature," Lynn Montgomery, president of the local 556 Transportation Workers of America, wrote in a letter in May to Southwest CEO Gary. Kelly.

According to the FAA, there have been at least 5,114 reports of riotous passengers since the start of the year across all airlines and more than 970 investigations initiated by the FAA, compared to 183 inquiries last year.