Passenger Tramples Gate Attendant at Seattle Airport After Mask Run-In, Police Say

The first time a California man tried to board his Alaska Airlines flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, attendants informed him he couldn’t fly without a face mask.

When he returned to the gate for the Sitka, Alaska-bound flight at 12:30 p.m. Monday, the 47-year-old passenger had a mask but was now too drunk to fly, KIRO reported.

The man tried to board anyway, knocking over an airline gate agent, KOMO reported.

“(He) essentially walked right through her and over the top of her as she fell down onto the ground and tried to continue on through to the jetway,” said Perry Cooper, a Port of Seattle spokesman, according to the KIRO.

Port of Seattle police arrested Mark Allen Hicks of Folsom, KIRO reported. The agent was taken to a hospital with a dislocated shoulder and a back injury.

Hicks faces a misdemeanor charge of assault, KOMO reported. The scuffle delayed the flight’s takeoff by about 25 minutes.

Alaska Airlines instituted a “no mask, no travel” policy for passengers on Aug. 7. The policy, laid out on the airline’s site, requires passengers to wear cloth face masks for the entire flight, with children under 2 as the only exceptions.

“If you are unable to wear a mask throughout the airport and for the duration of your flight for any reason, you will not be able to fly with us,” the policy says.

More than 23.9 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 820,000 deaths as of Aug. 26, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 5.7 million confirmed cases with more than 178,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. In the United States, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency.

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