The FAA reported Wednesday that it had sent 43 cases of passenger incidents to the FBI over the past year. That’s out of 1,240 cases airlines reported to the FAA – that sounds like a lot but there were about 820 million domestic passengers carried in the U.S. last year. And the number of incidents is down 80% compared to 2021, when there were far fewer passengers.
What accounts for better-behaved passengers in the skies? There are basically three reasons why inflight incidents are down so dramatically compared to 2021.
- They’re different passengers. In fall 2020, then-American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said that passengers during the pandemic were “somewhat different from our normal clientele.” (Then he backtracks a bit, “we love all our customers of course!”)
They weren’t business travelers. As Parker put it, they were “leisure customers traveling to leisure destinations.” Many of them were first-time flyers, taking advantage of very low fares. Put another way, I wrote at the time that everyone’s passengers were Spirit Airlines passengers then.
- Mask rules ended. Masks became a political flashpoint during the pandemic. The Biden administration took rules that the airlines put in place, and made them a federal mandate. (This exceeded the CDC’s statutory mandate, an interpretation bolstered by the Supreme Court, and eventually the mandate was struck down by a district court judge taking the administration off the hook from responsibility for extending it.
Unruly passenger incidents dropped by more than half immediately in the week following the end of the mask mandate.
A Florida woman was kicked off a Delta flight for allegedly refusing to wear a mask and spitting on other passengers. She told police they weren’t respecting her human rights. pic.twitter.com/9DDZoBa7up
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) July 10, 2021
Fight on the Spirit Airlines fight from Atlanta to Newark pic.twitter.com/gBr9jwImjz
— ATL Uncensored (@ATLUncensored) July 23, 2021
- Alcohol returned to planes. This one is counterintuitive. You might think that when airlines stopped selling alcohol in coach during the pandemic, people would be less inebriated, and therefore better behaved. The opposite is true. Knowing there wouldn’t be alcohol on board, they pregamed at the airport, bought alcohol “to go,” and brought their own on the plane. Consumption wasn’t being monitored, and there were more drunk incidents.
Of course most inflight incidents referred by airlines to the FAA winds up without punishment. Out of one cohort of 2,413 incidents of passengers refusing to comply with federal mask rules, only two of those passengers agreed to pay fines.
- TSA had to investigate the complaint – that’s time consuming
- Most investigations result in a warning, not a fine – about two-thirds received warnings
- Fewer than 2% were referred for penalties.
- And most of those challenged the fines.
The highest profile and most dramatic cases where there’s an administrative penalty actually see that pursued. Criminal complaints where the FBI or local police respond immediately may be pursued (but often aren’t). For the most part, though, when you’re up in the air it’s social norms and decency that keep everyone in check, not legal consequences.
Trump left office.
The FAs didn’t help. As I exited the toilet on a, practically empty, UA TATL just reattaching my mask, the FA asked me if I wanted to be banned and said I should wear my mask at all times. There were maybe ten of us in business.
Better behaved ? I find it difficult to believe .
That is the same as saying that Kamela has suddenly become intelligent , or that Biden has suddenly become lucid .
Better behaved ? I find it difficult to believe .
That is the same as saying that Camel-a has suddenly become intelligent , or that Brandon has suddenly become lucid .
As someone that continued to fly through COVID (I saw through the entire masking, social distancing, lying about deaths SCAM from the word GO) there was definitely a “different clientele” in the skies. I got a real up close view when the airline lounges were closed and therefore I was at gates. Government handouts, particularly to people that had never been given $2K at one time in their life and unemployment benefits far exceeding many peoples regular incomes fueled the travel rage. Along with dirt cheap fares. People chaining diapers at the gate, people playing music without headphones, people wearing nearly nothing (and not the body for such clothing), people totally disoriented during the board process, you name it.
And the masks didn’t help. It just makes people on the margins that much worse.
Which is why in part the ULCCs are trying to re-invent themselves from moving away from the $49 fare flyer. That flyer with no more “stymies” and maxed out credit cards no longer has an extra $100 for a Spirit round trip fare.
Maybe the prosecution of the criminal-in-chief conman Don of “Lock her up” infamy has sent a signal to the public that the law matters and justice is due to all who violate the law in the US. Good enough for DJT on the ground, good enough for the other law-violating misbehaving clowns at airports and on flights.
Maybe behavior also improves when people are less stressed than usual and stop buying into the “America is a disaster” nonsense that the con-man “culture warriors” try to sell to the country.
@GU … Please give us a break . Everyone knows that the political “prosecution” of DJT could not have been possible without a political “law” targeting him alone . Like a “Bill of Attainder” , no ?
There is also a “shift” taking place, the poor behavior, rants and rage of a former president and his minons are NOT seen as what we are as a people or Americans. People look and think. . .I don’t want to act that way. . .and maybe, just maybe a sense of decency and civility is returning to America. People are standing up to the bullies, the lies and shutting them down accross American, including on planes. I hope and pray that is the case as we move FORWARD!
we win!
What are you going to do for content?
The overdue prosecutions of DJT have nothing to do with any bill of attainder. Try to stick to the facts rather than to misapply terms which have no relevance in the matters of public prosecutions sending a signal to the American public about what is and is not acceptable public behavior regardless of background.
Weirdo behavior that is criminal needs to be held in check by the courts and by the very American people who want to exemplify good behavior to the country’s kids and man-children in need of lessons about what is and is not acceptable public behavior. US Presidents, past and present, should be no exception to having criminal behavior held in check by the courts and by the very American people who care about public decency.
Mantis, I hear sex still sells. Maybe he writes about Sara Nelson’s bikini-shopping at airports and then puts up a photo of Melania Tr*mp in the buff on or near a plane?
I’m a bit confused about that statistic regarding how many people actually end up paying the Fine. So are you saying that 98% of people refused to pay whatever amount they have been fined, and there are no consequences for them doing so?
Señor Leff,
Perhaps you can have a topic about traveling so fast that it’s possible to cover the distance between DC and NYC in less than one second? We have some kind of low-density star in our galaxy that is moving that fast on its way to escape this Milky Way mess. And there is no view from the wing of that flying object.
Fascinating analysis. Probably all wrong. Nonetheless, the illegalization and then re- legalization of firewater is ia fascinating analysis. I was disturbed by greatly reduced food and beverage service. This adversely affected my psyche much more than the lack of proper metal cutlery on food service trays immediately after 9-11. A significant number of flyers still are nervous fliers and need to booze up before boarding. The past few years, with greatly reduced onboard service, I have learned to bring an empty water bottle through TSA and fill it airside, because I very well could be hours in the air before any flight crew decides to stop looking at funny cell phone tiktok videos and actually serve a beverage.
A pessimist might say that it’s all part of the “Great Reset:” take away Golden Age of Travel complimentary service and then bring but half of it back for a stiff fee.
Alert – You are 100% correct. Meanwhile, GUWonder remains the brainwashed moron he has always presented himself to be.
Much of the bad behavior was a result of the constant negative venom that has been part of society since Donald Trump entered the political scene. As he fades away the climate of flying and the country as a whole will greatly improve.
@David R. Miller – You make a lot of fun, engaging, and insightful comments when you don’t throw out irrelevant insults. Please stick with the fun stuff I look forward to reading, bud. I want to look forward to hear what you have to say.
@Christian…”Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.”
Herman Melville
Airlines stopped taking EBT passengers who were using the taxpayers dime for their trips to get a BBL down in the D.R.
Now they’ve been replaced by the human smuggling operation originating from airports near the southern border.
The comments have gone insane. Seems everything anymore is about Presidential politics. Grow up people! You are as bad as the clowns misbehaving on airplanes.
The punishment and money fines are obviously pretty severe
I have been accused of a lot of nonsense over the years, but being accused of being brainwashed is a real novelty among the nonsense sent my way. 😀
David R Miller points the finger at someone else being brainwashed? ROTFLOL Most of his fingers point back at him while he is trying to accuse others of his own problem. Please go repeat your holy Lord Tr*mp’s mantras — including that about the 2020 election being “stolen” — to remind us of the mass brainwashing and who is a walking talking brainwashed character. 😀
I agree 100% with the FA comment. Masks represented the chance for some of them to power trip HARD back in 2021 and take out any and all frustrations they ever wanted to on passengers with impunity. I was the victim of this on an AS flight – the FA wasn’t satisfied that I was replacing my mask fast enough after each individual bite of food. He stood in the isle staring at me intensely as I ate and drank. It was beyond humiliating.
@gary is an absolute dumbass. Just because you haven’t gotten some tweet about it doesn’t mean they’re better.