The Federal Aviation Administration has referred over three dozen cases involving unruly airline passengers to the FBI since January as onboard clashes soar during the pandemic.
The 37 cases will be reviewed by the feds and could potentially lead to criminal prosecution, the FAA announced Thursday.
The Federal Aviation Administration has investigated 950 reports of disruptive passengers. Shutterstock
The majority of unruly passenger cases have come from people protesting mask mandates. APIt wasn’t immediately clear if any of the cases have already led to federal charges.
This year, airlines have reported over 5,000 instances of misbehaving passengers. Well over half, 3,600 of them, stem from people refusing to wear face coverings as is federally mandated.
The complaints from airlines sparked 950 investigations by the FAA — the most since the agency began keeping track in 1995.
The FBI will be reviewing 37 cases of rowdy passengers reported from the Federal Aviation Administration. Getty ImagesThe agency averaged 136 probes per year from 2016 to 2020.
With Post wires
