Unruly Passengers Face Harsher Punishment
Next time you fly, you can feel safer knowing that the punishment for unruly passengers is becoming more and more severe. The FAA reports an average of 80 unruly passenger aircraft incidents annually, with a total of over 900 over the past five years. These number don’t even reflect the all of the incidents, only the major ones. Many more less severe confrontations take place over delays, missing baggage, etc.
Confrontations can happen in many ways:
- the most popular confrontation occurs when the flight attendant refuses to serve an already intoxicated passenger another beverage
- failing to comply with airline policies, such as staying seated when the seat-belt light is on or turning off personal electronics when the plane is taking off or landing
- fewer meals, snacks, and drinks, smaller seating space, more delays, more fees, and less fresh oxygen on board the aircraft are also triggers for confrontation
Interfering with a crew member can result in a civil penalty fine of up to $25,000. If criminal laws are also broken, the fine will be higher and jail time will most certainly be involved.
Source: www.cnn.com
I am glad to see this. There is no place for unruly behavior on an airplane in this day and age!
I’ve never seen crazy stuff like that on any of my flights, so I can only imagine how frightening it would be. I’m also happy to see tougher penalties.
if anyone acted like that on a flight that i was on, you can bet that they wouldn’t be conscious by the end of the flight.