FAA PROPOSES CIVIL PENALTIES FOR INCIDENTS INVOLVING THREE PASSENGERS WHO ALLEGEDLY INTEREFERRED WITH FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
May 10, 2021
On April 27, 2021, the FAA announced it was issuing civil penalties, ranging from $14,500 to $31,750, in response to three incidents that occurred in January 2021 in which passengers allegedly interfered with and, in two cases, assaulted flight attendants. Federal law currently requires that passengers refrain from interfering with aircraft crew and strictly prohibits threatening to assault, or actually physically assaulting, aircraft crew or any other passengers on board an aircraft. The FAA has strictly enforced a zero-tolerance policy in these cases following the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Two of these cases involved passengers aboard the same JetBlue Airways flight from Haiti to Boston, MA. In both instances, the Administration alleged that the passenger drank personal alcohol, which the airline did not provide, and then proceeded to act in a disruptive and combative manner once flight attendants intervened following complaints from several other passengers about the passengers’ behavior. Both passengers ended up having to be escorted off the plane by police.
Similarly, in the third case, a passenger on a SkyWest Airlines flight from Yuma, AZ to Dallas, TX allegedly drank personal alcohol, which the airline did not provide, and proceeded to repeatedly disturb other passengers and dismissed multiple requests by flight attendants and off-duty law enforcement officers to remain in his seat.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Andy Orr (aorr@eckertsemans.com or 202-659-6625).
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