FAA MAKES ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICY ON UNRULY BEHAVIOR PERMANENT
May 4, 2022
On April 20, 2022, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) issued a press release announcing that it would make its zero-tolerance policy aimed at deterring unruly behavior onboard airplanes permanent. According to FAA, the decision to make the policy permanent was made as the agency believes its strategy has made a difference by reducing the frequency of onboard incidents involving unruly behavior by more than 60%, while egregious, unruly, and sometimes violent behavior has continued to persist. For example, so far this year 1,233 incidents involving unruly passengers have been reported, 797 of which were related to the recently voided mask mandate. Of these cases, FAA has initiated investigations into 370 incidents and acted in 192 of the cases.
FAA made its statement on the policy even after announcements by CDC and TSA that the mask mandate would no longer be enforced, even though the FAA’s zero-tolerance policy and the mask mandate have long been linked. FAA’s decision to make the policy permanent effectively delinked the policy from the mask mandate, allowing it to continue even as the mask mandate likely will not. To further enforce the policy in the future, FAA also stated that it has been working with TSA to revoke TSA PreCheck privileges for unruly passengers who are ultimately fined by FAA.
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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