An inconvenienced woman on a Delta Airlines flight on December 23 from Tampa to Atlanta allegedly compared herself to Black civil rights activist Rosa Parks before getting into a physical altercation with a fellow passenger.
Patricia Cornwall–a former NFL cheerleader and an actress who once appeared on an episode of Baywatch –was making her way back to her seat after using the restroom, but a beverage cart was preventing her from returning to her seat.
When Cornwall asked for assistance from the flight attendant, she was asked to sit in an unoccupied seat until the complimentary beverage service was finished.
Unsatisfied with the temporary solution, she said:
"What am I, Rosa Parks?"
Parks was a Black civil rights activist who was arrested in 1955 after refusing to give up her seat in the "colored section" of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, for a White passenger after the "White section" was full.
An elderly passenger on the same Delta flight, identified as Russell Miller, overheard Cornwall's comment and reportedly called her out for co-opting a Black woman's historical fight against racial segregation and applying it towards her own inconsequential plight.
Miller told Cornwall her comment was "inappropriate" and she "isn’t Black….this isn’t Alabama, and this isn’t a bus," according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail.
Things escalated violently after he allegedly called her "Karen" and told her to "sit down."
Cornwall was seen on a viral video punching, scratching and spitting on the elderly passenger.
You can watch the news report, here.
WARNING: violence
Cornwall was arrested by the Atlanta police at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and was taken into custody by the FBI.
She was released on a $20,000 bond.
According to CNN, documents stated Cornwall–who has a criminal history–was accused of “assault by striking, beating, or wounding R.S.M. in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States."
CNN said Cornwall was not required to, nor did she enter in a plea, for her initial appearance in court on Monday.
She was allegedly told by the airline she can no longer fly except for her return trip home to Los Angeles.
The incident followed a similar airline disruption earlier in December when a White male passenger from Florida was kicked off a United Airlines flight for wearing a thong on his face, in lieu of a proper face mask, to protest against the airline's mask mandate.
He also claimed he was making history just like Rosa Parks did.
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