Transportation Secretary Says Federal No-Fly List Is an Option

Last week’s violent passenger attack on an American Airlines flight attendant not only forced a New York-to-California flight diverted to Denver but led to the woman’s hospitalization for several broken bones in her face.

The incident, just the latest among the more than 4,500 complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) this year regarding unruly passenger behavior, is still top of mind for many in the airline industry.

And, now, for Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as well.

Buttigieg said on Sunday that a federal ‘no-fly list’ for violent airplane passengers “should be on the table.”

“It is completely unacceptable to mistreat, abuse or even disrespect flight crews,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Dana Bash on the nework’s “State of the Union” program. “We will continue to look at all options to make sure that flight crews and passengers are safe. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of treatment of flight crews in the air or any of the essential workers – from bus drivers to air crews who get people to where they need to be.”

The situation has spiraled out of control over the last 18 months, or just about the time when the political hot-button and personal freedom issue of a federal mandate to wear a face mask on flights was ordered.

Airlines have had unruly passengers removed from flights, the FAA has fined fliers tens of thousands of dollars under a zero-tolerance policy, and still the incidents keep escalating.

Buttigieg is the first government official to acknowledge that a universal no-fly list for violent passengers, similar to the list the Federal Bureau of Investigation maintains of suspected terrorists, could be an answer.

There is no such list at present among all airlines, only individual lists kept by the respective airlines, who have not shared information with each other. Thus, a person banned from Delta Air Lines can currently fly on United, or any other carrier. It has been suggested that a dramatic punishment of a ban from all airlines could be a more powerful preventative measure to cut down on the attacks.