Patricia Yannet Cornwall was arrested and charged last Thursday in an alleged assault aboard a Delta Air Lines flight. She is charged with hitting a passenger in the face and spitting on him after an argument. According to NBC News and recent court documents, Cornwall invoked the name of Rosa Parks. Yes, Rosa Parks on a plane.
The passenger she allegedly assaulted, only named R.S.M. per the complaint, told authorities Cornwall made the Parks remark to a flight attendant while returning from the bathroom. The flight attendant asked Cornwall to find an open seat until beverage service was completed, the complaint said.
NBC News goes further:
A nearly two-minute video captured by a third passenger indicates the point of contention being masks. However, the complaint says the argument escalated after Cornwall invoked Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer who refused to sit in the back of a segregated Alabama bus.
“CORNWALL responded to the flight attendant, ‘What am I Rosa Parks?’” the complaint said. “R.S.M. believed CORNWALL’S comment was inappropriate and he responded to CORNWALL that she ‘isn’t black .... this isn’t Alabama and this isn’t a bus,’” the complaint said.
I mean all the flight attendant did was ask Cornwall to temporarily sit in a spot so that everybody can get their cokes or hard beverages of choice. R.S.M. pointed out some obvious differences between Ms. Cornwall and Ms. Parks. For his efforts, he got hit and spat on.
Delta has recently made a statement about this incident:
“Flight 2790 from Tampa to Atlanta was met by law enforcement after an unruly customer disturbance during flight,” the airline told 11 Alive. “Situations like these are rare for the vast majority of our customers and Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior at our airports and aboard our aircraft.”