Aviation Safety: Regulator sustains ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, slams $37,000 fine on unruly passengers

*The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discloses it is working with the Transportation Safety Authority and FBI to add more sting to the regulatory agency’s Zero Tolerance policy against unruly passengers on board

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Sequel to the comparatively high rate of certain consumers’ disorderly behaviour aboard aircraft, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared the agency had seen enough bad manners over the two years, prompting it to make its Zero Tolerance policy against unruly passengers permanent.

ConsumerConnect learnt as the regulatory agency’s Zero Tolerance policy has helped to reduce incident rates by over 60 percent.

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Yet, the FAA feels it still has a long way to go in implementing the important policy in the country’s aviation system.

Officials also noted that they would issue a fine of about $37,000 to any air traveller who crosses the policy’s lines going forward.

Hitherto, the Amercian aviation regulator had tried to deal with unruly passengers by issuing warning letters or requiring counselling, but those attempts apparently were not taken seriously and are no longer part of the FAA’s disciplining procedures, report stated.

Previously, the maximum civil penalty per violation was $25,000.

Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said: “Behaving dangerously on a plane will cost you; that’s a promise.

“Unsafe behaviour simply does not fly, and keeping our Zero Tolerance policy will help us continue making progress to prevent and punish this behaviour.”

According to the regulator, unruly passengers might be looking at even tougher penalties soon.

It was gathered that legislation that could permanently ban a traveller from flying ever again was recently introduced in the US Congress.

What passengers should not do on planes

The FAA has clarified that there are certain lines under its updated policy that travellers should never cross.

The aviation authority further said there are two big points that travellers should keep in mind in this regard:

Travellers who interfere with the duties of a crewmember are violating Federal law. By “interfering,” the agency means assault, intimidation, or threats made to anyone involved with the plane’s operation.

A $37,000 fine will be assessed for each violation. If a passenger crosses the line in several different ways, they could be hit with multiple fines.

If it had the power to do so, the FAA might have taken even tougher action.

However, the agency only has civil authority to impose fines and does not have criminal prosecutorial authority.

Nonetheless, officials say they’re trying to add in a little more sting. For one thing, the FAA is now working with the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA) to revoke TSA PreCheck for unruly passengers that it fines.

As of February 16, 2022, the aviation regulator noted it had referred 80 unruly passenger cases to the FBI for criminal review.

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