FAA Chief Says ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy For Unruly Travelers Will Stay As Disorderly Passenger Incidents Hit Record High In 2021

There was an update on Mar 25, 2022, 11:58am.

The Federal Aviation Administration's zero tolerance policy for unruly passenger behavior is here to stay, the agency's chief said Friday.

He acknowledged that unruly passenger incidents have dropped in the past year, though he said they were occurring at too high of a rate.

The zero tolerance policy allows the FAA to take legal action against passengers who assault, threaten, intimidate, or interfere with air crew.

The rate of unruly passenger incidents halved as of September after hitting a record high in early 2021, the FAA website said.

In the week ending on March 13th, there were at least 4.1 unruly passenger incidents per 10,000 flights, which is still higher than at the end of 2020.

As of March 21, around 65% of the unruly passenger reports were mask related, according to agency data.

Seven in 10 unruly passenger cases last year were mask related.

The number of cases the FAA investigated for violations of one or more of the agency's regulations or federal law increased six times from the previous year.

The zero tolerance policy was rolled out by the FAA in January 2021. The FAA referred 80 unruly airplane passengers to the FBI to be reviewed for criminal prosecution. In order to ensure safety on board, Delta Air Lines CEO Edward Bastian sent a letter to the Justice Department asking them to put unruly travelers on a no-fly list.

The policy toward unruly passengers will be kept by the FAA.

A passenger on an American Airlines flight refused to wear a face mask.

There are cases of unruly airline passengers.