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.
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayorIn The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all timeThe Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
'More must be done'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
-
Trump seeks to cut drug prices via executive orderspeed read The president's order tells pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices, but it will likely be thrown out by the courts
-
RFK Jr. visits Texas as 2nd child dies from measlesSpeed Read An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease continues to grow following a decade of no recorded US measles deaths
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study findsSpeed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia
