Unfriendly Skies: FAA Releases ‘Unruly Behavior Doesn’t Fly’ Public Service Announcement

By Paul Riegler on 24 August 2021
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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration released a public service announcement video in an effort to curb the unruly or downright dangerous behavior that has taken place on flights over the past 18 months.

The message is simple: “Unruly behavior doesn’t fly,” and it comes as such incidents on flights continue to soar.

“We got a disruptive customer in the back,” the video opens with.

The 33-second PSA continues with the pilot speaking to air-traffic controllers saying, “We’d like to divert” and a controller asking, “Is there still a struggle going on.”  In the background, shouting and sirens are audible while ominous chords are heard.

The message is clear: Passengers don’t want their pilots distracted.  Period.

Meanwhile, since the start of the year, there have been 3,988 reports of unruly passengers, and 2,928 of them involved travelers refusing to wear a mask.  Some 693 incidents resulted in investigations, and 132 cases ended with thousands of dollars in fines levied on the miscreants.

In early August, the head of the FAA, Stephen Dickson, called on local police to file charges against unruly airline passengers more often.

“Many of these [unruly] passengers were interviewed by local police and released without criminal charges of any kind,” Dickson said in a letter to local authorities. “When this occurs, we miss a key opportunity to hold unruly passengers accountable for their unacceptable and dangerous behavior.”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

 

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