Mask fights a rising issue in flight reports
Over 450 cases reviewed by FAA for fines, jail time
WASHINGTON — Airlines have reported more than 500 cases involving unruly passengers since late December, and most started with passengers who refused to wear a face mask, federal officials said Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is reviewing more than 450 of the cases and has started enforcement action against about 20 people.
The FAA reported the figures shortly after it extended a “zerotolerance” policy against unruly people on airline flights. The agency said that under the policy, passengers who disrupt or threaten the safety of a flight could face fines and jail time.
FAA administrator Steve Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines executive, said in a statement the policy directs “strong enforcement action.”
The tougher enforcement stance was due to expire at the end of this month, but the FAA announced Monday that the policy will stay in place as long as the mask order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Transportation Security Administration remains in effect.
Airlines began requiring masks last May, and President Joe Biden
signed an order in January for a federal mask mandate on airplanes and in airports, along with other forms of transportation.
The FAA, which resisted a federal requirement during the Trump administration, added its own mask mandate in January.
The FAA is seeking civil penalties against at least four passengers.
A Delta passenger who boarded
a Miami-Atlanta flight in October faced a proposed $27,500 fine last month after allegedly hitting a flight attendant under her left eye, according to the FAA.
The passenger’s traveling companion allegedly refused to wear a mask, secure his tray table and fasten his seat belt, so the plane returned to the gate and both passengers were asked to get off the plane.
The passenger accompanying the man who did not want to follow instructions “began yelling expletives at the flight attendant and other passengers, and struck the flight attendant under her left eye,” according to the FAA.
Federal law prohibits interfering with crews, physically assaulting or threatening to physically assault anyone on a plane.
A passenger on an Alaska Airlines
flight from Seattle to Denver earlier this month faced a federal charge after refusing to wear a mask, then standing up and urinating in the cabin.
Two new cases
The FAA announced two new cases Wednesday.
In one, the FAA said it is proposing a $20,000 fine against a woman who repeatedly ignored flight attendants’ instructions to remain seated and wear her mask, then shouted obscenities and shoved an attendant.
Pilots turned around the Dec. 27 JetBlue Airways flight to Puerto Rico and returned to Boston.
The FAA said it is seeking a $12,250 penalty against another JetBlue passenger on a Dec. 31 flight from New York to the Dominican Republic.
The man drank alcohol he had brought on board, which violates federal rules, and refused to wear a mask.
The man also shouted profanities, slammed overhead bins and threw his bottle behind a seat, the FAA said. The crew asked police to meet the plane after it landed.
The flight returned to John F. Kennedy International Airport and landed 4,000 pounds overweight because of the fuel loaded onto the plane for the international flight.
“The number of cases we’re seeing is still far too high, and it tells us urgent action continues to be required,” Dickson said.