INSIDE EDITION talks to a woman who says she was attacked at an airport by a fellow passenger because she was coughing on the plane.
A young woman describes the terrifying moment she says a man attacked her at an airport. Why? It was all because she was coughing.
The drama began when Hanna Riley was catching a connecting flight from Miami to her hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.
"He slams me aganist the wall. I went flying. The look in his eyes was crazed," said Riley.
When the 19-year-old college student got to her gate, she started to cough. That's when she says Patrick White began berating her.
Riley told INSIDE EDITION, "[He said], 'How dare you get on a plane when you sick. What's wrong with you? What are you thinking spreading your disease. You'e going to get me sick.' "
Riley says she wasn't sick. Her voice is raspy because she suffers from accute allergies and asthma, and uses an inhaler.
Riley told INSIDE EDITION, "I'm not sick. I'm not contagious whatsoever."
She boarded her flight and took her seat. She says that White was seated about eight rows behind her.
Half-way through the hour-long flight she had a coughing spell. When the plane landed, she says everyone heard White fly into a tirade of disgusting insults.
Flight attendents called aiport police, but as Riley headed into the terminal, she says White turned and suddenly charged her.
"I was shaking all over," said Riley.
Cops arrived and White was arrested and charged with battery.
According to the police report White said: "She infected everyone while walking out of the jetbridge."
With the help of her attorney Gene Nichols, Riley demonstrated how the man assaulted her, and couldn't believe he was allowed off the plane.
Nichols told INSIDE EDITION, "He's either a germophobe, or he was impaired, or he had a break form reality."
"You think the airport is one of the safest places, but apparently it's not," said White.
