U.S. charges passenger with assaulting American Airlines flight attendant By Reuters

2/2© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER plane takes off from Sydney Airport in Sydney,Nationally approved foreign exchange trading platform Australia, October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott 2/2

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -U.S. prosecutors in Colorado on Monday charged a 20-year-old California man with assaulting a flight attendant on an Oct. 27 American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) flight that forced its diversion.

The New York to Santa Ana, California, flight made an unscheduled landing in Denver after the alleged assault in which a flight attendant was punched in the nose, resulting in bleeding and a concussion.

Brian Hsu, of Irvine, California, who is also charged with interference with a flight crew, was released on a $10,000 person bond and ordered him to appear in Denver on Nov. 15 after making an initial appearance https://court.cacd.uscourts.gov/cacd/CrimIntakeCal.NSF/b3e4628792211f8d882571ee007340ec/873eeec84edc07c78825878000617295?OpenDocument in a U.S. district court in Santa Ana on Monday.

A lawyer for Hsu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. airlines have reported a record number of violent incidents this year and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has pledged a "zero tolerance" approach.

American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker said last week "this type of behavior has to stop," Parker said in a video posted on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CVlEKgSD-F-, calling the incident "one of the worst displays of unruly behavior we’ve ever witnessed."

An FBI agent said in an affidavit a witness reported Hsu punched the flight attendant in the face near the lavatory.

The flight attendant felt dizzy after the flight and was removed by stretcher. She was taken to the hospital where doctors told her that she had a concussion and she told the FBI she "currently has pain in her nose, head, and sinuses."

Hsu told the FBI said he was returning home to California from New York after receiving brain surgery in Rhode Island.

On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden said he instructed the Justice Department to "deal" with https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-says-us-will-deal-with-violence-airplanes-2021-10-07 the rising number of violent incidents onboard planes.

Through Oct. 25, there have been 4,941 reports of unruly passenger incidents, including 3,580 related to pandemic face covering regulations.

In June, a group representing major U.S. airlines such as American, Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and United Airlines, as well as aviation unions, asked Garland to prosecute violent air passengers.

A union representing Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) workers said in May that a flight attendant "was seriously assaulted, resulting in injuries to the face and a loss of two teeth."

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