A Spirit Airlines flight was disrupted on Sunday when a passenger lost their temper over a kid kicking their seat. The passenger has admitted that she punched the child’s mother two or three times during the altercation. The assailant has since been charged with felony assault.

Bare-knuckle brawl on Spirit

The ‘Home of the Bare Fare’ airline was home of the bare fist fight this week when a passenger lost their cool during a flight to Portland, Oregon on Sunday. Daydrena Jaslin Walker-Williams had flown with Spirit Airlines into PDX, but hadn’t enjoyed her flight all that much.

The woman alleges that the children sitting behind her had constantly kicked her seat during the journey. The children, aged seven and three, were traveling with their mother, Nataly Hernandez. Walker-Williams said that she repeatedly asked Hernandez to stop her children kicking the seat, but that the discomfort continued.

Upon landing at PDX, Walker-Williams retrieved her bag from the overhead locker, but rather than simply deplaning, she let her rage get the better of her. She turned and punched Hernandez “two to three times in the face with her fist,” according to reports by Fox News, leaving the mother with a bleeding lip and lumps on her head.

Walker-Williams has justified her actions saying that Hernandez had ignored her requests to stop her children kicking the seat. She claims that, at one point, Hernandez had thumped her on the shoulder in response. However, Walker-Williams says that she didn’t tell a flight attendant about Hernandez hitting her because her “first reaction was to fight.”

According to the affidavit, officers told Walker-Williams that many other passengers on the flight had witnessed her assault on Hernandez, but that nobody had seen Hernandez thump her on the shoulder. In response to this, Walker-Williams simply said,

“You do what you got to do.”

The woman has been charged by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office with felony assault in the fourth degree and harassment. At this point, it doesn’t look as if the airline will be taking any action.

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Other scraps on Spirit

While every airline has its fair share of disruptive passengers, Spirit Airlines seems to hit the headlines more often than most. Back in October, a passenger ended up being tasered by police following an aggressive altercation over mask-wearing compliance.

Last June saw a shocking fistfight at a gate when three female passengers attacked a gate agent after they found out their flight was delayed. Shoes, water bottles, and other items were thrown at the worker, before the women broke through the barricade and battered her to the ground.

And in May, a flight from Los Angeles to Detroit had to make an emergency landing after a brawl broke out in the cabin. The cause of the fight? Someone was making too much noise, disturbing another passenger, and the situation escalated into a bloody fight.

While incidents like this are no reflection on Spirit Airlines itself, disruptive passengers should be adequately punished to prevent these incidents from happening again. For example, a disruptive passenger was ordered to pay Hawaiian Airlines more than $170,000 in 2019 after the flight was forced to return to its origin because of his behavior. More fines like this might make passengers think again before letting rage cloud their judgment.