Summer Travel Season Means More Incidents

Passengers who disrupt airline flights can be a danger to flight crew members as well as other passengers and may also jeopardize flight safety. 

The FAA is very concerned about these types of incidents and several years ago began making passengers who exhibit bad behavior pay for their lack of self-discipline.

Incidents of airline passengers disrupting flights have been a chronic problem for several decades but the resumption of travel volume in the months following the pandemic restrictions saw a nearly 6-fold increase with 5,973 incidents in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 the numbers dropped back down to 2,455 and 2,075, respectively. Thus far this year there have been 915 incidents, including 106 cases involving intoxication, which puts 2024 on pace for less than 2,000. This is encouraging to be sure but still too many according to the FAA.

Due to the skyrocketing number of incidents the FAA implemented a Zero Tolerance Policy on January 13, 2021 and began imposing fines instead of just issuing warning letters or counseling. In addition, the FAA will pursue legal enforcement action and can propose civil penalties of up to $37,000 per violation. Any passenger who intimidates, threatens, assaults, or interferes with airline crewmembers or other passengers will be subject to removal from the aircraft, the penalties just mentioned, criminal referral to the FBI and in extreme cases, possible revocation of TSA PreCheck eligibility or placement on an internal no-fly list for that airline.

FMI: www.faa.gov