The Californian woman arrested for attacking a fellow traveler on a Delta Air Lines flight has been identified as a former actress, Playboy model and NFL cheerleader, but the reason she punched the man is particularly bizarre.
The woman was identified as Patricia Cornwall, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail on Tuesday. The filing showed that the fireworks, which took place last week aboard a Delta plane, began after Cornwall was returning from the restroom and was asked by a flight attendant to find an open seat. She was asked to do so for the beverage cart to get through the aisle.
The 51-year-old Cornwall, who is white, replied, “What am I, Rosa Parks?” The quip alluded to the black civil rights hero who refused to give up her seat and move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955. According to the complaint, an 80-year-old man who was sitting nearby retorted that Cornwall “isn’t black... this isn’t Alabama, and this isn’t a bus.”
As seen in a video that went viral on social media, a heated argument ensued. Cornwall, who was standing with her mask pulled down to her neck, told the elderly passenger to “put your f***ing mask on.” The man, who had removed his mask to eat, continued to argue with her, at which point Cornwall challenged him to “stand your f***ing ass up.” He replied, “Sit down, Karen.” Cornwall shot back with vulgarity, saying, “Sit down, p****.”
The exchange continued to escalate, and after failing to persuade a flight attendant to order the man to put his mask on, Cornwall punched the passenger, scratched him and spat on him. The attack reportedly left several passengers and airline employees injured, including one person who was scalded with boiling water. Cornwall was arrested when the flight landed in Atlanta and was taken into custody by the FBI.
The incident occurred on Thursday, and Cornwall spent the Christmas holiday weekend in jail before being released on a $20,000 bond on Monday. One condition of her bail was that she was barred from traveling on commercial airlines, except for her flight home to Los Angeles.
Cornwall, who is said to be a realtor specializing in luxury homes on her Linkedin.com profile, was reportedly arrested in November for DUI. She previously went by the name Patty Breton in her acting and modeling career, which included a stint as a Los Angeles Raiders cheerleader in the 1990s. She made appearances on such television shows as “Baywatch” and “Married With Children,” as well as “Playboy: Cheerleaders,” according to her IMDb profile.
Airlines have struggled with increasingly unruly passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 5,000 complaints over passenger behavior – including attacks on crew or other travelers – were filed with the Federal Aviation Administration in this year’s first 10 months, a fivefold increase from 2000’s level. More than 70% of the confrontations related to mask requirements.