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A man and his wife were arrested Tuesday at Miami International Airport on Tuesday after he refused to get off an American Airlines AAL+1.19% flight bound for Las Vegas despite bleeding from the head.
Eugenio Ernesto Hernandez-Garnier, 27, and Yusleydis Blanca Loyola, 32, were both charged with trespassing after a warning and resisting an officer without violence, according to Local 10 News.
Police said that flight attendants had noticed Hernandez-Garnier was bleeding from his head, which was bandaged. The crew asked him to clean his head and replace the bandages, but he said didn’t have more bandages.
Hernandez-Garnier was asked multiple times to deboard because of the injury and refused, police said. Loyola was also asked to get off the flight, but wouldn’t. The crew called the police, who boarded the flight and asked the two to deplane. Upon their refusal, the husband and wife were both arrested.
“After a brief moment of resisting to be handcuffed, they were subsequently placed under arrest,” the police report seen by Local 10 said.
Both Hernandez-Garnier and Loyola were taken to the hospital to be checked and then placed in jail.
Hernandez-Garnier was released from jail Tuesday night. He told NBC Miami he traveled to Miami for a hair transplant and liposuction. His wife also got cosmetic surgery in Miami. Hernandez-Garnier said his doctor had cleared him to fly, which he told the cabin crew.
A flight attendant “tells me you either go out, or I’m gonna call the police,” he said, adding he was in pain from the surgery. “I said, call the police, because that’s injustice. I paid my flight. I don’t have nothing illegal in my packet. Everything is fine.”
Loyola live-streamed the incident and said she was also in pain. “We are being discriminated against and abused,” she said.
She also said the officers were rough with both of them, despite the fact they were recovering from surgery.
Miami-Dade County spokesperson Argemis Colomé told the network that “this could have all been avoided if they would have just followed the commands or the request of the officers to vacate the aircraft.”
American Airlines said in a statement that the couple “became disruptive and were non-compliant with crew member instructions.”
“Law enforcement responded and removed both customers from the aircraft,” the airline said. “We thank our crewmembers for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”