The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Tuesday that it had levied $119,000 in civil penalties against nine passengers for unruly behavior.
The FAA also launched a new campaign to advertise their Zero Tolerance policies against unruly behavior by passengers. The campaign features a web video of children explaining how to behave on a plane and their disgust over increasingly unruly passenger behavior.
The most recent cases propose civil penalties ranging from $7,500 to $21,500 for allegedly interfering with flight attendants who instructed passengers to obey cabin crew instructions and other federal regulations, including assaulting the flight crew and other passengers, drinking alcohol brought on the plane, and refusing to wear facemasks.
Federal law prohibits interfering with aircraft crew or physically assaulting or threatening to physically assault those on a plane, including aircraft crew and passengers. Federal law also provides criminal fines and imprisonment of passengers who interfere with a crew member’s duties through assault or intimidation.
In January, the FAA announced it would enforce a zero-tolerance policy towards passengers who cause disturbances on flights, fail to obey crew instructions, or engage in prohibited conduct.
Since the beginning of the year, the FAA has received more than 3,200 reports of unruly behavior by passengers, more than 2,400 of them over facemasks. The agency has identified 540 potential violations and initiated enforcement in 83 cases, proposing more than $682,000 in fines against unruly passengers.
The passengers have 30 days to respond to the FAA’s enforcement letter.