An unruly passenger made an American Airlines flight divert from its original route. American Airlines flight 60 was flying from Tokyo to Forth Worth. It was set to land at 4 pm. Instead, the flight landed in Seattle at around 2 pm.
An American Airlines spokesperson said that a mother and daughter were met by federal officials and asked to vacate the aircraft. After an hour, the plane continued to Dallas. There were no injuries or arrests made.
63 passengers and 13 crew members were onboard the Boeing 787-9. The flight stopped for an hour in Seattle before continuing to Dallas.
Increased Number of Unruly Passengers
Now that there are more air travelers in the past months, at least domestically, it comes with a few drawbacks. The FAA recorded an increasing number of unruly passengers. In January, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson signed an order that will make it possible to enforce stricter measures against an unruly passenger. Since February, there were 1,300 cases of unruly passengers onboard flights. Some refused to wear their masks while others even assault crew members. An Alaska senator was even banned by an airline for refusing to wear a mask.
Based on the new directive, unruly passengers can pay up to $35,000 and even face imprisonment. On top of the new directive, the mask-wearing mandate was extended. This means that passengers and crew will have to wear masks on both airports and planes. That is despite CDC’s latest guidelines on mask-wearing.
According to the CDC, those who completed their COVID vaccine doses can already remove their masks both indoors and outdoors in most scenarios. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned that the public misinterpreted the latest guideline. He said that “I think people are misinterpreting, thinking that this is a removal of a mask mandate for everyone. It’s not”. Instead, he clarified that “It’s an assurance to those who are vaccinated that they can feel safe, be they outdoors or indoors”.
