Newsy Investigates: Unruly Air Passengers Avoiding Sky-High Fines

The FAA is pursuing relatively few enforcement actions against misbehaving travelers despite a zero-tolerance policy, records reviewed by Newsy show.

The FAA announced it hit the $1 million mark in civil penalties filed against a record number of unruly passengers acting up in flight, often over the requirement to wear face coverings. Penalties for hot-headed fliers can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but a Newsy investigation found few violators of the FAA’s “zero tolerance” policy have had to pay anything this year. “There is zero tolerance, but that runs into the limits of practicality,” said Arjun Garg, former chief counsel at the FAA and now a partner at the D.C.-based firm Hogan Lovells.