Biggest unruly passenger penalty involves woman who stole cookies and attacked her own family

An American air regulator is seeking to impose a hefty fine on an "unruly" passenger who refused to fasten her seat belt, stole another passenger’s cookies and attacked her family members.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a $32,000 fine on a woman onboard a flight from Austin to San Francisco in May for refusing to fasten her seat belt. The screaming Horizon Air passenger allegedly also punched her son and husband.

When crew members attempted to intervene, she threw trash at them and snatched cookies from another passenger, the agency said.

This was one of the ten cases of assault on board flights in the United States. The FAA on Wednesday announced that they have proposed a combined total of $225,287 in civil penalties against 10 airline passengers for alleged "unruly behaviour involving physical assault".

Although the rate of abusive passenger incidents has dropped since the launch of FAA's “zero-tolerance campaign,” but it still remains high. A September release by the FAA stated that “unruly passenger incidents were occurring approximately six times per every 10,000 flights."

"Our work is having an impact and the trend is moving in the right direction. But we need the progress to continue. This remains a serious safety threat, and one incident is one too many,” said FAA administrator Steve Dickson.

The cases reportedly spiked after the US administration introduced a mask mandate on flights and airports in February, which is likely to remain in place till January 2022.

Since 1 January 2021, the FAA reported 5,114 incidents of unruly behaviour, which includes 3,710 incidents of people refusing to wear masks.

A passenger on a Delta Airlines flight in December allegedly refused to wear a mask, and then threatened, cursed at and shoved a crew member. The passenger was fined $24,000, the FAA said.

Another passenger was fined $23,000 for verbally abusing flight attendants and refusing to comply with the mask policy. She allegedly yelled at flight attendants and "struck a flight attendant on the right forearm, and attempted to do so again."

Law enforcement met her at the arrival gate.

The passengers have been given 30 days after receiving the FAA’s enforcement letter to respond. "The FAA lacks criminal prosecutorial authority but has referred cases to the Department of Justice where the evidence supports a criminal review," the agency said.