WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — The Federal Aviation Administration released a new report on Tuesday, showing an increase in unruly passengers within the last year. The agency saw the largest spike in January, but those numbers have since been on the decline.
Back in January, the FAA was forced to change its policy when it comes to handling unruly passengers, because of that increase. There used to be a warning for passengers who were acting out on planes. But, they changed their procedure this year to start taking legal action immediately.
In a press release, a spokesperson for the FAA said, "Passengers who interfere with, physically assault, or threaten to physically assault aircraft crew or anyone else on an aircraft face stiff penalties, including fines of up to $35,000 and imprisonment. This dangerous behavior can distract, disrupt, and threaten crewmembers’ safety functions."
The report released on Tuesday by the FAA shows how many cases they've responded to. These are the national statistics since January of this year:
• 4,837 Unruly Passenger Reports
• 3,511 Mask-Related Incidents Reported
• 5.8 reported unruly passenger incidents per 10,000 flights the week ending October 10, 2021
• 906 Investigations Initiated
• 206 Enforcement Cases Initiated
However, since the FAA started to crack down on these cases, the number of incidents has continued to decline.
Passengers at Bradley International Airport were not surprised to hear about the numbers from the last year.
“I like to expect people to do the right thing, assume good intent. But it doesn’t surprise me, the amount of anger that we see," said Patrick McNichols, from Connecticut.
"There’s a lot more traveling and people are kind of cranky because of the pandemic, so I’m not surprised at all," said Katie Puza, of Southwick, Massachusetts.
At Bradley, there was an incident just last month, where two unruly passengers from Connecticut were arrested and charged just last month.
Desiree Goffe, 23, of New Britain and Kaylene Thalia Valentin, 21, from Meriden were arrested and charged with breach of peace and impairing the morals of a minor. The Connecticut State Police say the women screamed and cursed at two children (ages two and four) and their parents while on a flight. Police said it all started because the kids were kicking their seats. Both women were both released on a $5,000 bond.
A spokesperson at Bradley said that incident is one of only a few incidents at the airport within the last year. Most, they say, are tied to aircraft incidents. But even then, the spokesperson said they are not seeing a major increase in unruly behavior at the airport.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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