Throw a fit on an airplane, pay the price.
On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that they have proposed $225,287 in civil penalties against 10 passengers for “alleged unruly behavior involving physical assault.”
The largest fine, $32,000, is being sought from a woman on a May flight from Austin, Texas to San Francisco, California. The female in question refused to buckle her seatbelt, punched family members traveling with her, threw trash at a flight attendant, and stole a fellow passenger’s cookies.
In March, a woman traveling from Dallas, Texas to Aspen, Colorado became irate when she realized her seat didn’t recline. She yelled at airline personnel, hit a flight attendant, and refused to wear a mask. Even after a passenger switched seats with her, she was disruptive. The FAA proposed a $23,000 fine.
$26,787 is being sought from a man traveling from New York to Chicago in May. During the final descent, he attempted to enter the cockpit. The crew deemed he wasn’t a threat, but “after he returned to his seat, he incorrectly thought the aircraft was already at the gate and attempted to remove his luggage from the overhead bin.” Flight attendants eventually “coaxed him to the back of the aircraft and sat him on the floor to ensure he remained seated during landing.” The man then attempted to injure himself. He also punched a flight attendant, who would require medical attention.
Overall, the FAA has received 5,114 unruly passenger complaints in 2021. The vast majority – some 73% – involve a refusal to comply with a mask mandate.
The FAA does not have the authority to prosecute unruly passengers. But last week, the agency reported that it had referred over three dozen cases to the FBI.
“Let this serve both as a warning and a deterrent: If you disrupt a flight, you risk not just fines from the FAA but federal criminal prosecution as well,” FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said in a news release.
The Justice Department and the FBI said in a joint statement that they are “committed to prioritizing the review of the cases referred by the FAA and initiating criminal prosecution where appropriate.”
The Washington Post reports:
A national survey of almost 5,000 flight attendants released by the union found that 85 percent of them had dealt with unruly passengers and nearly 1 in 5 had experienced physical incidents in 2021.
The outrage over unruly behavior on flights surfaced again last week when an American Airlines flight attendant was hospitalized with several broken face bones after a passenger assaulted her midflight.
The California-bound airplane was diverted and forced to land in Denver, in what American Airlines CEO Doug Parker called “one the worst attacks” in the company’s history.