The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it is taking steps to make permanent its "zero tolerance" policy for bad behavior on U.S. commercial aircraft. "Behaving dangerously on a plane will cost you; that's a promise," acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen said in a statement. The FAA issued its policy in 2021, in response to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, but many of the passengers fined or referred to the Justice Department for prosecution were sanctioned for attacking flight crew and fellow fliers over COVID-19 masking requirement.
The FAA launched investigations of 1,100 investigations of unruly behavior in 2021, out of nearly 6,000 reports of unruly passengers, many tied to aggressive flouting of the mask mandate. A federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's masking requirement on public transportation, and the Justice Department announced Wednesday that it is appealing that decision because the CDC determined that the policy is still necessary for public health.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
-
McDonald's sued over E. coli linked to burgerSpeed Read The outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cowSpeed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and earlySpeed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
-
US bans final type of asbestosSpeed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
