Federal authorities are not kidding about a zero-tolerance policy for unruly passengers on commercial flights. yesterday, Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced the two largest fines it has ever imposed on individual passengers. The exact amounts of the two fines are $81,950 and $77,272. So far this year, the FAA has ordered $2 million in fines.
A $81,950 fine was paid to a passenger on a July 7, 2021 American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the passenger fell into the aisle of the plane and threatened the flight attendant, who offered to help. I pushed the flight attendant out of the way and tried to open the cabin door. Even after two flight attendants handcuffed her, she “spit in the face, hit her head, bit her and tried to kick the crew and other passengers.”
The $77,272 fine was imposed on a passenger on a July 16, 2021 Delta Air Lines flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta. This passenger tried to “kiss and hug” another passenger seated next to her. Then she left her seat and tried to leave the plane mid-flight. As on the American Airlines flight, the passenger had to be physically restrained.
Besides being bitten, both incidents involved passengers attempting to open the aircraft cabin doors. You’ll be happy to know that it’s physically impossible for a passenger to open the doors. During flights, the cabin doors are locked inside the cockpit. The relatively heavy doors are also mainly closed at cruising altitude by the difference in air pressure between the cabin and outside.
If you are on a flight and someone starts smashing the window, stop that passenger immediately by any means necessary. Windows are perhaps the weakest point on an airplane that a passenger can ditch on their own. But you didn’t hear that from me.