Unruly passengers could be placed on new no-fly list under proposal
Out-of-control passengers might soon join suspected terrorists in being barred from flying on commercial airliners under newly pushed legislation in Congress.
US Senate and House members proposed a new no-fly list for misbehaving passengers Wednesday that would allow the Transportation Security Administration to ban people convicted or fined for assaulting or interfering with airline crew members.
The legislation would be separate from the current no-fly that is supposed to stop people with suspected terrorism ties from getting on planes and is run by the FBI.
While individual airlines have a list of passengers who they won’t let fly on their planes, they won’t share those names with others airlines, in part, out of fear it could violate laws that prevent airliners from cooperating with competing carriers.
A trio of Democrats — Sen. Jack Reed and Reps. Eric Swalwell and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn. – introduced the new proposal.
“Incidents involving abusive passengers increased by nearly 600% between 2019 – 2022,” Swalwell said in a tweet. “Our bill provides a simple solution – if you’re violent in our skies, you can’t fly.”
The number of mile-high incidents involving unruly passengers have dropped since a judge struck down the mask requirement on planes. But incidents that have been probed by authorities are still a whopping five times higher than before the COVID pandemic hit, leading to airline unions backing the bill.
“The violent incidents have not stopped,” said Frontier Airlines flight attendant Cher Taylor, who witnessed one passenger attack another in 2021 and flee before cops arrived.
“Strong penalties are needed to curb violent and unacceptable behavior,” Taylor said outside the Capitol. “Bad behavior should not fly.”
But civil libertarians were strongly against the legislation and argued this new no-fly list would be similar to the FBI list, that they believe unfairly targets people of color and is secretive. The American Civil Liberties Union even took a shot at airliners in their opposition as the group argued reported incidents are declining.
“If Congress wants to further reduce air-rage incidents on aircraft, it should look at forcing the airlines to make flying a less miserable experience,” said Jay Stanley, a spokesman for the ACLU.
The proposed law would alert people if they are not allowed to fly and give them the chance to appeal the decision, the three co-sponsors said.
The bill would give TSA the final say over how long a person would be banned from flying on commercial planes.
Similar legislation failed last year.
With Post wires
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