A couple arrested for refusing to get off an American Airlines flight claim they were "discriminated against and abused." Eugenio Hernandez-Garnier and Yusleydis Loyola, a married couple from Las Vegas, had traveled to Miami for cosmetic procedures. Hernandez-Garnier, 27, underwent a hair transplant and liposuction, while Loyola, 32, underwent liposuction and a breast lift, per NBC Miami. They say a doctor had cleared them to fly home Tuesday, but a flight attendant told Hernandez-Garnier to get off the flight because he had blood dripping from his bandaged head.
Police said Hernandez-Garnier was initially asked to clean up the blood and replace his bandages, but he said he didn't have any fresh ones, per WPLG. He was then asked to leave. He refused, at which point police were called. "If you don't get off, they're going to grab you and they're going to pull you off," an officer told Hernandez-Garnier in footage recorded by Loyola, per NBC. "If they take me off, they're going to hurt me," Hernandez-Garnier responded. Two officers eventually stood him up and put his hands behind his back, prompting Hernandez-Garnier to scream. "He's just been operated on!" shouted Loyola. "And they're hitting him!" As Loyola was taken off the plane, she also screamed out in apparent pain.
Both Hernandez-Garnier and Loyola were charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. "This could have all been avoided if they would have just followed the commands or the request of the officers to vacate the aircraft," a Miami-Dade County police rep tells NBC. But "we believe that obviously they were discriminated against because of how they looked following a medical procedure that was necessary," says the couple's attorney, Michael Inglesia. He claims the airline gave the couple extra assistance in getting on the flight. "And it was only after other passengers complained of their appearance that they were asked to get off." (More American Airlines stories.)
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