Written by Staff Writer
Two French passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight in April were arrested for assaulting a flight attendant, American Airlines announced on Wednesday.
Mark Ducont, 48, and John Reygadas, 38, did not have a boarding pass when they boarded Flight 954 from Atlanta on April 29, an airline spokesman said.
The flight attendant asked the two men to stop drinking on board and put them in seats, but when the men refused to leave, they pinned the flight attendant to the floor and beat her, according to a statement released by American Airlines.
Before they were arrested, the men began punching the flight attendant and eventually broke her nose and cracked a bone in her face, the spokesman said.
“Passengers seated in other sections of the cabin and an American Airlines pilot witnessed the incident and helped detain the men until law enforcement officials arrived,” the statement said.
An attorney for the men told CNN they were not arrested at the time because officers recognized them from information posted on social media and that “they took the appropriate action.”
Although no one knows the motive for the attack, CEO Doug Parker said on Wednesday that it was “one of the worst” assaults on a Southwest Airlines employee in the company’s history.