The Attorney General told federal prosecutors to focus on prosecuting crimes committed on airplanes during the holiday travel season, amid a startling rise in unruly or violent conduct by airline passengers this year.
On March 24, 2020 in Victorville, California, a Delta Air Lines jet taxis past a Southwest Airlines plane.
The images are from the same company.
The memo was sent Wednesday afternoon by Garland and urged the attorneys to focus prosecution of federal crimes on commercial aircraft that endanger the safety of passengers, flight crews, and flight attendants.
Local law enforcement agencies should be encouraged to report suspected illegal conduct in the skies.
There has been a recent increase in criminal inflight behavior, including possible violations of a federal law barring airline passengers from threatening or interfering with flight crew and flight attendants.
The Thanksgiving travel season is in full swing. 4.2 million Americans will travel by air between Wednesday and Sunday, up 80% from last year, but down 9% from 2019. The busiest day since the start of the Pandemic was Friday, when the Transportation Security Administration screened over 2.2 million passengers.
The number is big.
1,012. The FAA has opened more investigations into unruly passengers this year than in any other year.
The key background.
In the last year, airlines and federal agencies have reported a rise in unruly inflight behavior. The FAA has received over 5,300 reports of unruly passengers this year, and the TSA has reported dozens of assaults against its security staff since the start of the Pandemic. Some incidents have drawn national attention, including a Frontier Airlines passenger who was taped to his seat after being accused of touching two flight attendants, and an American Airlines passenger who punched a flight attendant. Many of these encounters involve passengers refusing to comply with the federal government's inflight mask mandate, and over 70% of this year's FAA unruly passenger reports were mask-related, but flight attendants say they've also dealt with drunk passengers. The FAA has issued millions of dollars in civil fines against passengers accused of unruly behavior, and it has referred some cases to the DOJ for possible criminal prosecution. Flight attendants and airlines want federal officials to take stronger action against violent and abusive passengers. In September, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants labor union, told Congress that the government should impose fines more consistently. A group of unions and airline trade associations wrote a letter in June urging Garland to send a strong and consistent message through criminal enforcement.
A passenger is accused of attacking a flight attendant.
