Flight attendant's bloody assault by passenger part of disturbing trend
CBSN
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who lost two teeth after she was physically assaulted by a passenger on Sunday is among the more egregious examples of an unsettling increase in unruly and dangerous behavior on the part of air travelers.
There were 477 passenger misconduct incidents on Southwest flights between April 8 and May 15, including one Sunday morning on a flight landing at San Diego International Airport, according to the carrier's flight attendant union. "This past weekend, one of our flight attendants was seriously assaulted, resulting in injuries to the face and a loss of two teeth," TWU Local 556 President Lyn Montgomery wrote in a letter to Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.