FAA Hands Over Several Incidents of Unruly Passengers to FBI

If you act up on an airplane, you’re probably going to jail.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has turned over 20 cases of unruly behavior on airplanes to the FBI for prosecution, according to The Hill.

That’s a total of 39 cases this year alone brought to prosecution for airline behavior.

“Unruly behavior poses serious safety concerns for passengers and crew alike, which is why we are addressing this issue aggressively,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a Tuesday statement.

The new cases range from verbal and physical assault on flight attendants to bomb threats and sexual assault.

The FAA, which is working in partnership with the FBI, has sent more than 270 cases for prosecution since 2021. Although the rate of unruly behavior has dropped significantly, the FAA had a backlog of nearly 6,000 cases of unruly behavior at the height of pandemic restrictions in 2021.

Punishment ranges from monetary fines to jail time, or both. Monetary fines can be up to $37,000 per violation.

The bulk of the fines came during the pandemic, however, when wearing a mask became more of a political referendum on personal freedoms.