Two sunburned, drunken New Jersey sisters allegedly attacked a Frontier Airlines gate agent after the duo were kicked off their flight at a Florida airport, according to bodycam footage released on Wednesday.
Kiera Lyons, 22, and Maura Flores, 31, were arrested when they were accused of being intoxicated and causing a disturbance on their Garden State-bound plane at Orlando International Airport on May 15.
Bodycam footage from the incident shows an Orlando police officer approaching the airline worker, who was seated on the airbridge’s floor after the alleged assault.
“It was the short, skinny one first that pushed me and then the bigger — her sister — pushed me right after,” the Frontier Airlines worker tells the officer.
The victim states that she was asked to call her supervisor and the police after the sisters refused to exit the aircraft and were “screaming” and causing a scene on board.
However, after some time, the pair agreed and were escorted up the jetbridge.
As the sisters were leaving, the worker claims, Lyons unleashed a verbal attack on the flight crew and got in her face, saying, “F–k you, you fat bitch.”
“I said, ‘Thank you,’” the victim recalls. “When she was facing me, she pushed me and then turned around, and then the sister came up and shoved me again,” adding that it caused her to trip over something on the floor.
A flight attendant standing nearby backs up her claim and tells the officer that both women pushed the victim.
Outside the jetbridge, the chaotic footage also shows the Manahawkin, NJ, sisters explaining their side of the story to other officers in the terminal.
Lyons — who claimed she had “anxiety and depression” and was hyperventilating throughout the exchange — tells police she was feeling sick in the bathroom when a flight attendant asked her to leave the plane.
Flores says the flight attendant asked her sister if she was “intoxicated,” to which she said, “Yeah, I had a few drinks.”
Lyons then claims the exchange escalated when a male employee allegedly touched her chest, upsetting them both. She even demonstrates by pushing the officer’s chest.
“I had a couple drinks, but I’m literally supposed to walk for graduation [tomorrow],” Lyons is heard telling the officers while sobbing. “I’m a Division III athlete. It just sucks.”
Lyons is a former field hockey player for Stockton University in Galloway Township, who currently works as a trainer at a gym in New Jersey. Flores is a mother of two in Manahawkin, according to the Daily Mail.
Moments later, Lyons is seen being put into handcuffs, which further upsets her older sister.
“You are not handcuffing my sister,” Flores shouts as Lyons is detained. “I’m calling my lawyer right now.”
Flores then tries to get away, but is grabbed by the officer and also put in handcuffs.
“Are you kidding me?” Flores cries. “You believe that girl?”
The footage then shows both sisters continuing to argue with the officers inside a squad car.
“Can you at least take the cuffs off while I am in the car?” Maura asks. “I’m not a criminal.”
A female officer is heard telling the pair to save their “energy to argue in court,” as the video comes to an end.
Lyons and Flores were both charged with first-degree battery and disorderly conduct in the second degree for allegedly assaulting a gate agent, according to a filing in Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit obtained by People.
The airline employee suffered “minor injuries” from being shoved.
Both sisters had their cases closed and were referred to a pre-trial intervention (PTI) program on Sept. 17, the outlet reported.
A PTI program is “designed to divert minors and defendants of nonviolent crimes from prosecution. These programs typically involve elements intended to educate and rehabilitate individuals,” according to the Florida law firm Bogin, Munns & Munns.
“Once the program is completed successfully, criminal charges against the defendant are dismissed.”
With Post wires
