A California woman has been charged with beating her 2-year-old and 4-year-old children on a commercial airliner and interfering with the flight crew.

Tamera Freeman, 38, who appeared in court on July 18, was arrested on July 16 at Denver International Airport upon her arrival on a Frontier Airlines flight from San Francisco, California.

An FBI affidavit quotes passengers as saying Freeman seemed intoxicated, was abusive with her children before she boarded the plane and repeatedly hit and yelled at them during the flight.

The affidavit also alleges Freeman threw a drink at the feet of a flight attendant who had intervened on the children's behalf and followed her into an aisle yelling and pointing her finger, causing the attendant to feel threatened.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's staff, which is prosecuting Freeman, said the children were handed over to a relative.

If convicted on the felony charges, Freeman faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines her sentence is likely to be much less severe.