A traveler was jailed after assaulting a Black airline worker and hurling racial slurs at him at an airport in southeastern Brazil on Sunday.
Surveillance video captured the moments when Luana Otoni verbally and physically assaulted an Azul Brazilian Airlines operations manager at Belo Horizonte’s Confins International Airport, according to Daily Mail.
Moments before the confrontation, Otoni had to be escorted off the aircraft after she collapsed on the ground while approaching the plane.
A worker filed a report revealing that Otoni showed signs of intoxication at the time she attempted to board the plane. Employees explained to her that she wouldn’t be allowed to board the flight under civil aviation guidelines and would need to take a different departure.
As the operations manager began removing her belongings from the plane, she reportedly grew upset and started hurling insults at him such as “monkey, a bum, an idiot, and a piece of s***.”
The 39-year-old lawyer also mocked his profession and told him, “You’re happy to have a preppy girl off the plane.”
Surveillance video showed her escalating the situation by slapping, punching, and kicking the worker several times while a male employee attempted to restrain her.
Otoni spoke with police after they were called to the scene and said that she had tripped as she was walking onto the flight but followed the instructions she was given to disembark.
She was arrested after the assault.
In a statement Azul Brazilian Airlines sent to DailyMail.com, officials said, “Azul emphasizes its strong condemnation of any form of offense or aggression towards its Customers and Crew members, and appropriate measures will be taken.”
Many airline employees are often forced to deal with unruly passengers.
In December 2023, Spirit Airlines had to ban a drunk man who fought a police officer in Colombia. The man was caught on camera arguing with another male passenger while the Florida-bound plane was parked. When a police officer came on board to stop the disruption, the man started fighting the cop. The man was taken into custody once the fight ended.
Last February, two passengers and two airline gate agents brawled at the Philadelphia airport. The fight started after the agents told the mother-daughter duo their bags were too big to be designated as carry-ons and that they had to pay a baggage fee to get on the flight. The daughter ignored the agents and went ahead to board anyway. The fight started when one agent tried to stop her. All four had to answer to a private criminal complaint.
