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(CNN) – The country’s largest flight attendant union says nearly one in five members have encountered a violent plane passenger so far this year, and says now is the time to focus more on criminal charges for unrest in the air.
“When people risk jail for acting on a plane, suddenly we see some sober up,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “We believe that criminal sanctions are essential to make it very clear that there are serious consequences for this type of action.”
The union’s push draws attention to the jurisdictional challenges of penalizing the thousands of passengers accused of acting in the air. And the group underlines the urgency to act: 85% of members who responded to its survey said they had met an unruly passenger.
Local police who are called to accommodate an arriving flight may not have the authority to lay criminal charges. An alleged assault, for example, may have taken place hundreds or thousands of kilometers in the air.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which receives reports of unruly passengers from airline crews, has no authority to lay criminal charges.
Instead, he called for civil fines, launching a zero tolerance campaign and proposing nearly $ 683,000 in fines against 43 passengers, including those accused of catching and hitting crew members and other passengers. He has opened hundreds of investigations into alleged breaches – more in the first half of this year than in the previous four years combined.
The Justice Department said it had charged 14 people so far this year with the federal crime of interference with a crew member. This is almost as much as the 16 charged in 2020 and the 20 charged with the same crime in 2019.
A spokesperson said the department exercises prosecutors’ discretion in indictment decisions and called the offense a “serious crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.”
But those FAA and DOJ cases are just a fraction of the more than 3,600 unruly passenger cases reported to federal authorities this year.
The FAA told CNN its efforts included civil fines and a “comprehensive education campaign.”
“The FAA shares the concerns of the Association of Flight Attendants, and we are deeply disturbed whenever a member of the cabin crew faces threats in the performance of their critical safety duties,” the FAA said. in a statement to CNN. “That is why we have adopted a policy of zero tolerance and why we are taking the strongest possible measures within our legal authority.”
The flight attendants union said in a press conference Thursday that it believed the FAA was taking action but more needed to be done.
“With the staff and the funding they have… they’re doing more than I’ve ever seen them do before,” Nelson said. “We believe the FAA is doing everything right now.”
In some cases, the air marshals can be involved in an in-flight incident. Noel Curtin, a Miami-based supervisor with the Federal Air Marshal service, recently told CNN that the response of air officers “depends on the case.”
Nelson said she believed the problems on the planes were due to “a relatively low number of passengers,” but her limbs were suffering.
“In the past, this was usually a one-time event. It was a really bad working day,” she said. “But it was not the typical experience.”
Top image: Planes on the runway at Miami International Airport in Florida in June. Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images
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