The incident escalated when a Frontier employee noticed the women had only paid for one of their two carry-on bags during check-in, leading to a verbal altercation as the women were told to pay for the extra bag or be removed. According to police, the women then rushed onto the plane through a door marked 'restricted area authorized personnel only'. A Frontier manager denied the women's boarding passes due to their actions and requested their removal from the plane, prompting police to ask all passengers to leave to facilitate the arrest; the women attempted to leave with the crowd.
During the arrest, the women resisted handcuffing, resulting in a brief struggle before they were taken into custody, and Nafisa Dockery spat on someone as she walked off the plane, according to multiple reports. The women were charged with Resisting Officer Without Violence To His Person and Trespass Property/After Warning, with Dockery also facing a Battery charge, and they were taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. The legal representation status for the three women and Frontier's official comment on the incident remain unknown, as do any specific penalties beyond the charges and whether injuries occurred during the struggle; the exact duration of the flight delay beyond 'more than an hour' has not been confirmed.