Of the 4,385 air rage incidents reported by September 24, only one person has been criminally charged.
That is Vyvianna Quinonez, who in May punched a flight attendant in the face on a Southwest flight approaching San Diego. At the time of her arrest, she claimed she was acting in self-defense.
The airlines are under Federal jurisdiction—which means legal violations can be prosecuted by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Criminal penalties can run up to 20 years in prison if convicted of interfering with the operations of an aircraft.
As a civil authority, the FAA cannot charge anyone. The agency can fine violators up to $35,000.
Seal of the Justice Department
There are several reasons for this huge increase in air-rage incidents.
First, coach passengers are cramped into tight places with strangers, where they have little control over what’s happening to them. This can lead to nervousness, negative feelings and anger.
Second, the political polarization that marked the Donald Trump administration has taken to the skies with the imposition of mask mandates.
Surgical mask
Robert Bor, a director at the UK-based Centre for Aviation Psychology, says that most air-rage incidents are about masks.
“Most people are pretty neutral on whether they have Coke or Pepsi, but they will have very strong feelings when it comes to issues relating to health, human rights, access to air and so on; it triggers people to behave in slightly more militant ways.”
By June 29, of the 3,100 air-rage incidents thus far reported, 2,350 involved people refusing to comply with the Federal mask mandate.
Airline crew members are frightened by these attacks—and depressed at the lack of punishment for them.
“We tell them [passengers] that it is a Federal offense to not comply with crew member instructions,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “Then the plane is met by airline supervisors or airport law enforcement and the passenger gets a slap on the wrist and sent on their way.”
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson has his own complaints: “Every week, we see situations in which law enforcement was asked to meet an aircraft at the gate following an unruly passenger incident. Many of these passengers were interviewed by local police and released without criminal charges of any kind.”
Meanwhile, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has had its own serious lapses in judgment.
In March, 2013, TSA Administrator John Pistole unveiled a proposal to allow passengers to bring small knives, baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes.
He explained that in light of hardened cockpit doors, armed off-duty pilots traveling on planes and other preventive measures, small folding knives could not be used by terrorists to take over a plane.
TSA dropped the proposal in June, thanks to fierce opposition from passengers, Congressional leaders and airline industry officials.
By October, 2021, the TSA had seized nearly 4,500 guns at airport security checkpoints, compared with about 4,400 in all of 2019, before the pandemic caused air travel to plummet in 2020.
About 85% of the weapons caught were loaded. They were found on passengers or in carry-on bags across 248 U.S. airports, largely in Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth.
It’s worth remembering that for all the publicity given the TSA’s “Air Marshal” program, it’s been airline passengers—not Federal lawmen—who have repeatedly been the ones to subdue unruly fliers.
Prior to 9/11, commercial airline pilots and passengers were warned: If someone tries to highjack the plane, just stay calm and do what he says.
So many airplanes were directed by highjackers to land in Fidel Castro’s Cuba that these incidents became joke fodder for stand-up comedians.
And, up to 9/11, the advice to cooperate fully with highjackers and land the planes where they wanted worked. No planes and no lives were lost.
But during 9/11, passengers and crew—with one exception—cooperated fully with the highjackers’ demands.
And all of them died horrifically when three of those jetliners were deliberately crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
World Trade Center – September 11, 2001
Only on United Flight 93 did the passengers and crew fight back.
In doing so, they accomplished what soldiers, military pilots, the CIA and the FBI could not: They thwarted the terrorists, sacrificing their own lives and preventing the fourth plane from destroying the White House or the Capitol Building.
Memorial to the passengers and crew of United Flight 93
As a result, passengers are now ordered to act as their own air marshals when danger threatens.
To put an end to these outrages against public safety:
- Violators should be taken into custody solely by the FBI.
- Bail should be denied for all violators.
- Every air-rage case should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
- If this puts a strain on Federal detention centers, the accused should be shipped off to Guantanamo and other holding facilities.
- Flight attendants and passengers should be empowered to use deadly force against anyone who poses a danger to the flight. Anyone found to have legally killed an air-rage perpetrator should be granted immunity from prosecution.
- Anyone found illegally bringing a firearm aboard a flight should be arrested, jailed without bond, and tried under the USA Patriot Act, which counters terrorism. If convicted, s/he should spend at least 10 years in prison.
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REPUBLICANS: AIR RAGE OVER MASKS ISN’T TERRORISM
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 2, 2022 at 12:18 amDuring the first six weeks of 2022, nearly 500 unruly passenger incidents were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
That makes for more than 6,400 since the start of 2021.
About two-thirds of the incidents in 2021 concerned violations of the federal mask mandate.
On February 16, the FAA said it had referred a total of 80 incidents to the Justice Department to consider criminal prosecution.
Airlines may ban an unruly passenger from their own flights, but competition rules mean that information is not shared with other carriers. Which means that a flier who was banned on Delta might board a flight on Southwest.
In September, 2021, the airline industry asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to establish a Federal “no-fly” passenger list, whose information would be shared with all airlines.
In February, Delta Air Lines renewed the request in a letter to the DOJ.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggested to CNN’s Dana Bash last fall that a federal no-fly list for violent airplane passengers “should be on the table.”
American Airlines Pilot Captain Dennis Tajer explained the dangers facing everyone on board when an “air rage” incident erupts: “The moment something happens in the back of the aircraft, as a captain, my attention goes off of my primary duty and onto the back of the airplane.”
Dennis Tajer
Tajer, who represents the Allied Pilots Association, wants stricter punishments for air rage.
So who isn’t in favor of a “no-fly” ban?
At least eight “law-and-order” Republican United States Senators.
Their names:
All eight are virulent supporters of Donald Trump, who, as President, refused to wear a mask and incited violent action against governors who declared mask mandates.
The reason for their unexpected clemency: It would be unfair to people who break mask mandates.
In a jointly-signed letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, dated February 14, they stated:
“Your office received a letter from Delta Airlines on February 3, 2022. In that letter, Delta indicated their desire for the U.S, Department of Justice (DOJ) to create a comprehensive “nofly” list.
“This list would would presumably include any airline passenger who has been convicted of any on-board disruption. As a result, those passengers would subsequently be banned from using any commercial air service provider moving forward. We write today to express our strong opposition to the creation of such a list.
“While airlines are currently free to deny service to any individual over past transgressions on their flights, the federal government’s role in denying access to the commercial aviation network has been limited to ensuring that suspected terrorists remain off of domestic flights.
“According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, the majority of recent infractions on airplanes has been in relation to the mask mandates from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
“While we strongly condemn any violence toward airline workers, there is significant uncertainty toward the efficacy of this mandate as highlighted by the CEO of Southwest Airlines during a recent Senate Conference, Science and Transportation Committee hearing.”
N95 mask
There is no uncertainty about the “efficacy” of the ability of masks to protect people from COVID-19. Since the virus appeared in 2020, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has repeatedly urged Americans to mask up to protect themselves and others.
“Creating a federal ‘no-fly’ list for unruly passengers who are skeptical of this mandate would seemingly equate them to terrorists who seek to actively take the lives of Americans and perpetrate attacks on the homeland.”
Being “skeptical” of the need for mask mandates poses no threat to anyone. But refusing to mask up to protect yourself and others from a deadly virus presents a danger to both. And attacking airline employees who are trying to enforce that law presents a clear and present danger to them and passengers.
“The TSA was created in the wake of 9/11 to protect Americans from future horrific attacks, not to regulate human behavior aboard flights.”
In short: It’s OK to protect American airline passengers from Islamic lawbreakers who endanger their lives aboard aircraft. But it’s unfair to protect American airline passengers from American lawbreakers who endanger their lives aboard aircraft.
“The creation of this list by DOJ would result in a severe restriction on the ability of citizens to fully exercise their constitutional right to engage in interstate transportation.”
At the time the Constitution was ratified in 1788, airline travel didn’t exist. In addition, it’s customary to place “severe restrictions” on citizens who break the law. And while Americans have the right to travel between states, they do not have the right to threaten the safety of others while doing so.
Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, minced no words about the senators’ request: It’s “irresponsible and political brinkmanship that puts our economic security at risk right along with our lives.
“We’ve been punched, kicked, spit on, and sexually assaulted. We urge the FAA, TSA, and DOJ to come together to implement a plan with due process to keep dangerous flyers on the ground.”
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