Photo: JULIETTE MICHEL / AFP / Getty Images
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it proposes fines of at least $ 160, 000 dollars against eight passengers of airlines for alleged unruly behavior related to alcohol abuse.
According to the government agency, most of the cases involved passengers who tried to consume their own alcohol on board the flight, which goes against federal regulations. According to the FAA, the largest financial fine was for a passenger, who will have to pay $ 40,000 Dollars.
The person fined was a Southwest Airlines passenger, who was part of a flight to San Diego last April , is accused of drinking his own alcohol on the flight despite being told by a flight attendant that it was forbidden to do so.
In addition, the passenger also is accused of assaulting the flight attendant and smoking marijuana in the bathroom of the plane while getting off at the San Diego airport.
The FAA added that another passenger, who must pay a fine of $ 17, 000 dollars allegedly drank his own alcohol on a JetBlue Airlines flight from New York City bound for Ecuador last month April.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported that after adopting a strict policy, the rate of incidents of this nature on commercial flights “decreased drastically ”, although it is still“ still too high. ”
In a statement sent to the country’s airports last August, the FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said that “Research shows that alcohol often contributes to this unsafe behavior “.
To try to quell incidents of this nature, Dickson asked airports to prevent passengers from carrying glasses of alcohol” to carry ”on board flights.
“ Despite the fact that FAA regulations specifically prohibit the consumption of alcohol on board an airplane that is not served by the airline, we have received reports that some airport concessionaires have offered alcohol “to carry “and passengers believe they can carry that alcohol onto their flights or they get drunk during the boarding process,” Dickson wrote in the statement.
To date, there have been 5. 240 reports of passengers who have not behaved correctly in the veils in the United States, therefore the fines have been severe .
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