FAA has referred 37 unruly passengers to the FBI for probes

FAA has referred 37 unruly passengers to the FBI for probes

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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 air traffic control tower is in sight as a plane takes off from San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco.
The majority of unruly passenger cases have come from people protesting mask mandates.
AP

It 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.

A United Airlines plane takes off above American Airlines planes on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on October 1, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
The FBI will be reviewing 37 cases of rowdy passengers reported from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Getty Images

The agency averaged 136 probes per year from 2016 to 2020.

With Post wires

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