Woman Screams at and Attempts to Kick Airport Staff in Outburst Caught on Video
Selomit Velez-Rodriguez, 46, was arrested and charged with battery, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence
NEED TO KNOW
- A 46-year-old woman was arrested after having an outburst at Orlando International Airport last week
- The woman was allegedly denied boarding to a Southwest Airlines flight on Aug. 14
- “It’s not your brother who’s dying,” the woman shouted at other passengers in the clip
A plane passenger’s meltdown in the Orlando International Airport last week has gone viral.
On Aug. 14, a woman was allegedly unable to board her Southwest Airlines flight. As a result, she lashed out at the gate agent.
A fellow traveler, Peyton Turbeville, recorded the passenger as she screamed at the airline employees.
“Motherf—–,” the woman says at the beginning of the clip. “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?”
Meanwhile, what appears to be a Southwest employee wearing a pink polo shirt tells others to back away from the hostile customer. After he attempted to talk to her in a calm manner, the woman kicked towards the man.
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“That’s assault,” Turbeville can be heard saying behind the camera.
After taunting the employees and chasing them behind the counter, the woman slams a computer monitor with her phone three times.
“Two flights wasted,” she shouts. “Three planes, after 45 minutes.”
Turbeville told Storyful the incident occurred after the woman did not make the standby list for three flights.
After following the employee in a pink polo out into the terminals main walkway, she screamed at other travelers to call the police.
“I have my rights,” she said. “So that’s what I want, the police.”
Then she confronted another traveler sitting in the waiting area: “It’s not your brother who’s dying, it’s not your brother that you need to go disconnect, right?”
The woman made her way back to the Southwest counter to punch a different monitor, completely knocking it off the surface.
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A representative for the Orlando Police Department confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE that officers responded to a report of a battery around 9:30 p.m. local time last Thursday.
“Witnesses told officers that the suspect, identified as Selomit Velez-Rodriguez… attempted to disrupt the boarding process of a flight, struck an airline employee, and damaged a computer monitor and keyboard valued at more than $1,000.”
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According to police, while being taken into custody, the 46-year-old “tried to pull away from the officers.”
PEOPLE reached out to Southwest Airlines and the Orlando International Airport for comment, but both deferred to local law enforcement.
Per court records, Velez-Rodriguez is charged with battery, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence.
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In July, another viral video caught a woman’s tumultuous meltdown after her flight out of Paris was cancelled. New York-bound Norse Atlantic Airways flight 301 was set to depart at 8:15 p.m. local time on July 3. But, passengers were alerted just before midnight that their trip was cancelled due to mechanical issues.
One of the passengers, Erianne Freign, told SWNS a woman dressed in a white T-shirt and yellow pants became frustrated after the airline wouldn’t provide hotel accommodations. In a video taken by Freign, the guest shouts and curses at airline employees.
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After an intense reaction, a police officer grabbed her by the forearm and dragged her behind the counter.
Norse Atlantic Airways told PEOPLE in a statement, “Due to issues in Paris, including the ATC strike in France, we experienced unfortunate and temporary irregularities. Passengers were, and will be further followed up. We are unable to comment on specific passenger incidents out of respect for the privacy of those involved. Our team always prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of our passengers.”
Wild video shows plane passenger grabbing woman’s hair in bizarre freakout on NYC flight: cops
By
Unruly woman causes chaotic scene on flight from NYC to Kansas City
A drunk passenger was handcuffed and dragged off a Southwest Airlines flight after grabbing a woman’s hair and throwing a fit at LaGuardia Airport, according to police and wild video of the ordeal.
Leanna Perry, a 32-year-old passenger from the Big Apple, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after a meltdown before takeoff around 1 a.m. Tuesday, the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) said.
Video from inside the cabin shows several passengers and airline employees grappling with the crazed passenger as she holds onto a woman’s hair and calls her a “fat a– bitch.”
“Let go of her hair,” one person calmly tells her — as she bizarrely claims to not be touching the other woman’s hair, despite still clearly having a painful grip on it.
The passenger then began hurling wild insults and kicking passengers as airline staffers tried to hold her down and escort her off the plane, according to clips posted on Reddit early Wednesday.
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“Ugly a– bitch,” the slurring passenger then says while being restrained with her hands zip-tied behind her back.
“Your boyfriend’s d–k is like 2 inches big. It’s embarrassing. I’m so sorry about your boyfriend,” she bizarrely continued in the offensive rant.
Perry then says that she “can’t breathe” and falls to the floor between seats, the video shows.
“F—k you!” she then screams as she violently kicks her legs in the air.
“Can anybody do something, please?” one flyer pleads as the passenger continues flailing her legs around.
As some people move in to try to get her upright, she becomes emotional and tells everyone to leave her alone before going into another expletive-ridden tirade before the video ends.
Port Authority Police said they responded to a “report of an intoxicated passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight at Terminal B of LaGuardia Airport.”
Perry was taken to a local hospital before she was handed over to the New York City Department of Corrections, the PAPD said.453
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“The Customer involved in the incident was removed from the flight and denied boarding,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told The Post in a statement.
“We commend our Team for their professionalism during the incident.”
