Flight attendants launch “Assault Won’t Fly” campaign at LAX

By MATTHEW RODRIGUEZ

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL) — Flight attendants launched their “Assault Won’t Fly” campaign at LAX, hoping to garner support for legislation barring violent passengers from flying.

In a survey from the Transport Workers Union of America, which represents flight attendants, 57% of airline crews have experienced assault or harassment from an unruly passenger in the last year.

In 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration said airline crews reported 5,981 unruly-passenger incidents, a record high. Most of the incidents were mask-related. Cases dropped the following year but remained 10 times higher than in previous decades. For example, in 1995 there were 146 reports of unruly passengers.

So far in 2023, airline crews reported 628 incidents.

Because of the influx, flight attendants are pushing legislators to pass the Protection from Abusive Passengers Act which would prohibit violent passengers from flying in the United States after they are convicted of assaulting an aviation worker. It would also permanently ban the same passengers from TSA PreCheck or Customs’ Global Entry programs.

Federal law already bars any attempts to “assault, threaten, intimidate, or interfere with a crewmember in the performance of the crewmember’s duties aboard an aircraft being operated.”

Any incidents that fall within this criteria can result in fines, totalling up to $37,000, and criminal charges.

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