Woman arrested for punching Southwest Airlines worker

Verbal altercation with agents on plane leads to aggravated assault charges
An employee of Southwest Airlines was hospitalized after being struck by a passenger at Dallas Love Field Airport.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

An employee of Southwest Airlines was hospitalized after being struck by a passenger at Dallas Love Field Airport.

A woman has been arrested after punching a Southwest Airlines employee in the head during boarding for a flight out of a Dallas airport over the weekend.

Arielle Jean Jackson, 32, was arrested Saturday afternoon at Love Field, Dallas police said. Police said Jackson has been charged with aggravated assault.

The incident happened during the boarding process for a flight from Dallas to New York’s La Guardia Airport, Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz said.

Police said that Jackson first had a verbal altercation with an operations agent at the back of the plane and was asked to exit. As Jackson was exiting, she had another verbal altercation with a second operations agent that turned physical, with Jackson striking the agent in the head with a closed fist, police said.

Mainz said the the operations agent, a woman, was taken to a hospital and released Saturday night.

Jackson was in Dallas County jail on Sunday on $10,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for her.