DALLAS, TX – NOVEMBER 24: A flight attendant walks through an airplane prior to the airplane boarding at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on November 24, 2021 in Dallas, Texas. The FAA expects Thanksgiving travelers to return to pre-pandemic levels, with more than 53 million people expected to travel in the days leading up to the holiday. Photo: Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images (Getty Images)
The Federal Aviation Administration last week imposed two of its largest fines to date on two unruly passengers who threatened, bit and kicked fellow passengers and flight attendants over the past year.
The largest fine in FAA history — $81,950 — was levied on a woman who disrupted a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina on July 7, 2021:
The $81,950 fine affects a passenger on an American Airlines flight on July 7, 2021 from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas to Charlotte, NC belonging to the gang. The passenger then pushed the flight attendant aside and tried to open the cabin door. Two flight attendants tried to restrain the passenger, but she repeatedly hit one of the flight attendants on the head. After being restrained with flexible handcuffs, the passenger spat on the crew and other passengers, hit her in the head, bit her and attempted to kick her. The police arrested her in Charlotte.
The FAA awarded a slightly lower amount of $77,272 to another passenger who “…tried to hug and kiss the passenger seated next to her; went to the front of the plane to disembark mid-flight; refused to return to her seat; and bitten another passenger multiple times.”
You seem nice. It will come as no surprise to you to learn that alcohol may have played a role in both incidents. Both women have the next 30 days to appeal the penalties.
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Unruly passengers were hardly a blip in the days leading up to the pandemic, but with incidents skyrocketing, the FAA operates a zero-tolerance policy toward people disrupting flights. This no-nonsense approach reduced incidents by 60 percent in 2022, but at the time of writing, there were still 1,081 recalcitrant passenger reports with 707 mask-related incidents. Mask requirements have been relaxed across much of the country, but they will still be required on flights until at least September.
Fines are the only consequences idiots face on flights. It is against federal law to interfere with a flight crew and their duties. While the FAA cannot prosecute unruly passengers, they do face federal charges for their actions on board flights. Airlines have also asked federal authorities to place misbehaving passengers on a federal no-fly list. As this request was ignored, many airlines now maintain their own no-fly lists and share these lists with other airlines.