FAA REFERS 37 UNRULY PASSENGER CASES TO DOJ FOR POTENTIAL CRIMINAL PROSECUTION
December 17, 2021
On Thursday, November 4, 2021, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) announced that it has referred 37 cases involving egregiously unruly behavior by airline passengers to the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) as it believes the cases meet the standard for potential criminal prosecution.
In determining whether to criminally prosecute unruly passengers, DOJ considers a number of factors including, but not limited to, the egregiousness of the offense, the victim impact, if lives were in danger, and mental health. Additionally, before prosecuting unruly passengers, DOJ has said it also considers factors including whether the aircraft had to make an unscheduled landing, if the offense committed is a repeat offense, and if there are any other mitigating factors.
According to the FAA, there have been 5,033 reported unruly passenger incidents this year, 3,642 of which were related to mask compliance. FAA has also initiated 950 investigations for unruly passenger incidents, and to date, has initiated enforcement action in 227 cases year to date. Comparatively, the DOJ has criminally charged 25 defendants for interfering with flight crewmembers over the last year.
This all comes months after the FAA’s implementation of its “zero tolerance” policy aimed at deterring bad behavior by passengers aboard airplanes and repeated requests for the DOJ to be more involved in unruly passenger cases by taking more aggressive actions, including criminally prosecuting unruly passengers.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6665).
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