A woman was arrested and charged with assault after she struck an American Airlines employee who barred her from boarding a connecting flight because she wasn't wearing a face mask, NBC News reported.
An American Airlines spokesman, Curtis Blessing, told the news outlet that the woman, Yolanda Yarbrough, did not follow the airline's face covering guidelines on a flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix.
According to the report, Yarbrough landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport when an employee told her she can't board her connecting flight to Las Vegas because she wasn't wearing a mask.
Blessing told NBC News that Yarbrough "became irate." Phoenix police told the network Yarbrough then struck the employee in the face with her hand.
Yarbrough has been banned from future American Airlines flights while the incident is under investigation, according to Blessing.
Major US airlines started to crack down on customers who refuse to wear masks and adhere to face-covering guidelines. Last month, American Airlines strengthened its face mask requirement on its flights.
"Due to safety risk of asymptomatic COVID-19 transmission by individuals without face coverings, all customers must wear a face covering from the time they enter their departure airport and not remove it until they exit their arrival airport," the airline wrote in a July press release.
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