Assault, urination, smoking: Airline passengers fined over alcohol-related incidents
The Federal Aviation Administration this week proposed $161,823 in civil penalties against eight passengers for alleged “unruly behavior involving alcohol.”
The agency reports cases of sexual assault against a flight attendant, smoking marijuana on a plane, yelling profanities at airline crew and more.
The FAA confirmed in a Monday release it has received nearly 300 reports of “passenger disturbances due to alcohol and intoxication” since the beginning of the year. The fines range from just over $8,000 to more than $40,000.
As of Nov. 16, officials have documented at least 5,240 unruly passenger reports, with 3,798 of those being mask-related incidents.
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wouldn’t resume the sale of alcohol in flights until 2022, but that hasn’t stopped passengers from bringing their own on board in the meantime.
Passengers are prohibited from drinking alcohol on board a flight unless it is served by the airline. While the rate of unruly passenger incidents has dropped about 50% since record highs in early 2021, when the FAA first introduced its “Zero Tolerance” policy against unruly passengers, the agency said the number of incidents “remains too high.”
do more to reduce the number of unruly passenger incidents.
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Contributing: Bailey Schulz and Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY