Man fights passenger after she refused to give up seat for him and his wife

A fight erupted in an airport after a passenger slapped a woman for refusing to get up to to allow him to sit next to his wife.

Héctor Santacruz asked Claudia Segura vacate her seat in a crowded departure lounge at Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport in Colombia, to allow him to sit with his wife Karen.

The businessman became irate after Segura ignored his demands, striking her in the face and swiping her phone out of her hands and knocking an earring to the floor.

Segura, a government contractor, said she had sat in the only available seat in the lounge.

She recalled being confronted by Santacruz on July 27 who demanded ‘get up or I’ll get you up’, while encouraging nearby passengers to film the ensuing row.

Other passengers sat near Gate 9 intervened as the argument escalated out of control.

Segura was taken to an urgent care centre following the brawl, where she received treatment, Daily Mail reported.

‘I am affected and very afraid’, she reflected afterwards.

Santacruz’s wife’s design business, Khala, received a barrage of criticism after video footage circulated of the fight in the terminal.

The clip showed Segura lying on the floor as she was attended to by airport workers.

Condemning her husband’s actions, Karen said his behaviour ‘went against what we want’.

‘The person shown physically assaulting a woman is my husband. And you don’t know how much it hurts me to say this out loud,’ she said.

‘And it really hurts me as a woman, as a mother, as the founder of Khala, because all of this goes against what we want, what we’ve been working on for so many years.’

She added: ‘As the old saying goes, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. This doesn’t mean it’s right, because it isn’t. 

‘No, I don’t condone it, I don’t approve of it, and I won’t remain silent. I reject it from the bottom of my heart because I believe in dignity, in boundaries, and in respect.’

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