The Federal Aviation Administration is urging airports to monitor sales of alcohol in terminal bars and wants to ban ‘to-go’ drinks to try and curb the surge in unruly passengers on flights.
The FAA has initiated a crackdown with airlines encountering a rising number of violent and disruptive passengers as more Americans start flying again.
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said: ‘Our investigations show that alcohol often contributes to this unsafe behavior.’
He asked airports to ‘work with their concessionaires to help avoid this.’
The United States has seen a significant jump in reported cases of passengers causing disturbances on airplanes, including many for refusing to wear face masks.
The Federal Aviation Administration is urging airports to monitor sales of alcohol in terminal bars and wants to ban ‘to-go’ drinks to try and curb the surge in unruly passengers on flights
On Saturday, a drunk Frontier Airlines passenger accused of groping two flight attendants and punching a third on a flight from Philadelphia to Miami was taped to his seat for the duration of the flight and arrested on landing, the latest in a string of high-profile incidents.
Footage captured the moment Maxwell Berry, 22, was duct taped to his seat while on the Frontier flight to Florida after saying that his parents were worth $2million.
A second video showed Berry repeatedly shouting ‘help me, help’ while wriggling free from the duct tape around his mouth as the plane came into land.
In March, Dickson indefinitely extended a ‘zero tolerance policy’ on unruly air passengers imposed in January.
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‘We are taking the strongest possible action within our legal authority. But we need your help,’ Dickson told airport officials in a letter dated Wednesday. ‘Every week, we see situations in which law enforcement was asked to meet an aircraft at the gate following an unruly passenger incident. In some cases, flight attendants have reported being physically assaulted. Nevertheless, many of these passengers were interviewed by local police and released without criminal charges of any kind.’
‘Even though FAA regulations specifically prohibit the consumption of alcohol aboard an aircraft that is not served by the airline, we have received reports that some airport concessionaires have offered alcohol ‘to go,’ and passengers believe they can carry that alcohol onto their flights or they become inebriated during the boarding process,’ Dickson added.
Through Aug. 1, the FAA has received 3,715 reports of unruly passengers this year, including 2,729 involving passengers not wearing masks.
On Saturday, a drunk Frontier Airlines passenger was accused of groping two flight attendants and punching a third on a flight from Philadelphia to Miami
Maxwell Berry, 22, was then duct-taped to his seat and arrested on three counts of battery after the incident
The FAA has initiated 628 investigations, more than three times the number last year.
Dickson noted that alcohol often contributes to unsafe passenger behavior and asked airports to prevent passengers from taking alcoholic drinks on planes.
‘We have received reports that some airport concessionaires have offered alcohol ‘to go,’ and passengers believe they can carry that alcohol onto their flights or they become inebriated during the boarding process,’ Dickson said.
In June, a group representing major U.S. airlines and aviation unions wrote U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking the Justice Department to crack down on unruly passengers.
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