If you’re one of the millions of non-Florida residents who visit the Walt Disney World every year and you choose to do so via plane, you’ll always get to Disney by way of Orlando International Airport, also known by its IATA airport code, MCO.
Every year, Orlando International Airport serves an average of 40 million passengers across one main terminal (called the North Terminal; the South Terminal is still under construction), four concourses, and 129 gates. In 2019, a record 50.6 million passengers passed through MCO’s gates. Of those passengers, nearly 7.2 million were traveling internationally, and close to 43.5 million passengers were traveling domestically.
Passengers making their way to the Most Magical Place on Earth account for a large part of MCO’s traffic, and Disney and Orlando International seem to work well together. Recently, in honor of Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration, part of the airport was dressed in its Disney and 50th best, giving Guests a taste of the magic from the very moment they disembarked their planes.
But as you might expect, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows (or in this case, pixie dust and fairy tales), even at an airport that plays a role in getting Guests to the vacation of a lifetime. According to WESH Channel 2, video of an incident has just recently surfaced that shows a wild exchange between a young woman and police at the Orlando Airport.
The officer bodycam footage released by the Orlando Police Department depicts an incident that began around 6:3o p.m. local time in April 2021 at the airport. According to an affidavit, officers were called to respond when a passenger became disorderly because she was intoxicated. She had been denied boarding because of her intoxication, which was observable by those around her as she slurred her speech and then began yelling at other passengers and airline representatives around her when she was told she would have to miss her flight.
The affidavit also describes the woman’s behavior as an officer attempted to explain to her why she couldn’t board the aircraft, stating that the young woman responded to the officer by “angrily rolling away, yelling profanities while atop a motorized luggage bag.” In the officer’s bodycam video, the woman can be seen riding away on her suitcase, and the officer even mentions that the suitcase really moves. He then mounts his bicycle and must pursue her on his bike as she “rolls” away.
When the officer caught up with the intoxicated woman, he tried again to reason with her, but she spat on him. The officer remained extremely calm and patient with the woman, as is seen in the bodycam video, but after multiple extended attempts to curb her disorderly behavior, the officer declared, “You’re under arrest.” He placed handcuffs on her, at which time she spat in his eye.
As officers attempted to take the woman into custody, she reportedly kicked and grabbed at them. They were eventually able to get the woman into a police cruiser, where she proceeded to spit, urinate, and defecate.
The 31-year-old woman faces multiple charges, including battery on a law enforcement officer, assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct.
