FAA Extended its Zero Tolerance Policy

Two women on an American Airlines flight got in a scuffle as the aircraft is preparing to deplane. The video of the incident was posted via Twitter on Sunday by user @katebytheocean0. The video showed passengers standing by the aisle while shouting and screaming can be heard from the video. A crew member can be heard calling for law enforcement during the video.

The incident happened aboard the American Airlines flight 2275. According to the tweet “Almost missed my connecting flight with @AmericanAir in Phoenix because two girls decided to fist fight over who was getting off the plane first. I can’t”.

American Airlines confirmed the incident. In a statement, “American received a report of an alleged altercation between two customers while waiting to deplane from flight 2275 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Phoenix (PHX)”. There were no reported injuries from both passengers and crew.

FAA Zero-Tolerance Policy on Unruly Passengers

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced last week that it is going to extend its zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers. FAA’s zero-tolerance policy was expiring on March 30.

However, FAA Chief Steve Dickson said in a statement that “the number of cases we’re seeing is still too far too high”. Dickson said that they are going to implement “strong enforcement action against any passenger who disrupts or threatens the safety of a flight”. The penalties can range from fines and even jail time. The policy will last as long as there is a mask mandate.

Dickson said that “we will no longer adjudicate certain of these unruly passenger cases with counseling or warnings”. Also, fines can reach up to $35,000 as well as some jail time.

500 Complaints Since Late December

Since late December, there were 500 complaints of passengers behaving badly. Some passengers were reportedly refusing to comply with the mask mandates. Since mid-January, the US no-fly lists grew to more than 2,000 names. Lots of these cases were because of individuals refusing to wear their masks.