Florida airport arrest videos are not Capitol rioters, but woman accused of battery on JetBlue employee

Videos showing women being arrested at a Florida airport are not related to last week’s violent protests at the U.S. Capitol.

The videos, first posted to the app TikTok, drew thousands of views across various social media platforms on Monday, and were often shared with the hashtag #NoFlyList.

Many who posted them said that the women, who are seen screaming as they are carried or dragged away by Broward County sheriff’s deputies, were being arrested upon their return from Washington, D.C. where they were part of a mob of President Donald Trump supporters that stormed and vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Arrest records from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office say the videos show the women being arrested months before the Capitol riot, on Nov. 12, at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Nataliya Pyrig, 47, of Miami Beach, was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery and resisting or obstructing a police officer without violence. She is accused of touching or striking a woman, and failing to obey commands during her arrest, a Broward County court document states. She was released on $1,000 bail and pleaded not guilty.

Halyna Hnatkiv, 22, of Miami Beach, was arrested and charged with resisting or obstructing an officer without violence. She is accused of grabbing a deputy by the arm and screaming at deputies to stop as they arrested Pyrig, according to court records.

Hnatkiv pleaded not guilty on Dec. 22.

On Nov. 12, Broward deputies responded to a disturbance call near the lower level baggage claim involving a report of a passenger not wearing a mask on a flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale.

A JetBlue crew supervisor, in a recorded statement, told deputies they received a report from the flight that a family of five were not wearing masks. The supervisor approached Pyrig after the flight landed to explain that she had violated JetBlue policy and would be banned from flying on JetBlue in the future. They also said they asked Pyrig for identification to assist in that process.

In a supplemental report, an arresting deputy wrote that Pyrig was wearing a mask, though not over her nose, when he arrived at baggage claim where Pyrig was becoming “visibly and increasingly upset” with JetBlue employees.

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When airline supervisors began taking photographs of Pyrig’s luggage tags, deputies witnessed her aggressively confront the JetBlue supervisor and push the luggage sticker tags onto the supervisor’s arm, the report states.

The supervisor told deputies they wanted to press charges, and Pyrig was arrested. Deputies said she deliberately tensed her ams, legs and body, and had to be carried out of the airport.

Pyrig told deputies that during the flight her young son had removed his mask due to a nose bleed, and that she did not have to wear a mask herself due to a medical condition.

The videos of Pyrig and Hnatvik appeared as part of a video montage that claimed to show arrests of Capitol rioters and was viewed millions of times on Twitter. The Tampa Bay Times has not verified the accuracy of any of the other posts tagged #NoFlyList or #SeditionHasConsequences.

Some commenters incorrectly identified the location of the arrests as Tampa International Airport.