Woman drank and vaped, refused mask on flight to Charlotte is fined $17,000

A woman who was kicked off her flight to Charlotte in February for drinking alcohol, trying to vape and refusing to wear a mask has been hit with a $17,000 fine by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The woman was flying from Key West, Fla., to Charlotte on a Republic Airways flight on Feb. 28, according to the FAA. The agency says it has seen a nearly 300% increase in cases of unruly passengers so far this year compared to the number of incidents reported for all of 2020.

The penalty was among more than $530,000 in fines the FAA announced against 34 passengers on Thursday. The latest slate of fines means the agency has now fined unruly passengers more than $1 million in 2021.

According to the FAA, the woman was drinking alcohol that wasn’t served by the airline, interfering with crew members, not complying with the federal face mask mandate and trying to use a vape pen on the plane.

The aircraft returned to the gate at the Key West airport and she was removed from the plane, according to the FAA.

In a letter sent to airports in early August, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson asked airport leaders to cut down on passengers bringing “to go” cups of alcohol onto planes. FAA regulations prohibit the consumption of alcohol that is not served by the airline aboard aircrafts, Dickson said in the letter.

Many of the cases of unruly behavior investigated by the FAA are fueled by alcohol, according to the agency.

NC flight attendants learn self-defense, as reports of unruly passengers rise by 300%

The FAA launched a “Zero Tolerance” campaign against unruly passenger behavior in mid-January. Previously, the agency had dealt with unruly passengers by using warnings, counseling and civil penalties.

Effective in mid-January, the agency stopped addressing those cases with warnings or counseling.

The agency has initiated nearly 700 investigations into passenger behavior in 2021. That’s a huge jump from last year’s tally of 183 and 2019’s tally of 146. And the agency has received 3,988 reports of unruly passengers. Nearly 3,000 of those reports were related to face masks. yahoo.com