After fists were exchanged on a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Kauai on Monday, transportation officials released footage of the incident and warned that misbehaving passengers could face criminal charges and fines of up to $37,000. I warned you that there is.
Kauai police told NBC News that officers responded to Flight 1288 when it landed in Lihue, but no criminal charges were filed. However, the “Today” program reported that the Federal Aviation Administration is considering possible fines for those involved.
After the incident, the U.S. Department of Transportation said in a post to may be subject to penalties.”
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Witnesses said both men were detained after the plane landed, but it’s not entirely clear what sparked the fight. In footage of the incident, flight attendants and other passengers can be seen intervening to separate the pair and calm them down.
“I heard screaming, yelling, punching. I turned around and saw one man bleeding and another man being pulled away,” Southwest passenger Jim Wieder said. hawaii news now About the incident. “Honestly, I was a little nervous, because you’re at 35,000 feet and you’re two guys swinging at each other, so it just doesn’t make any sense.”
The son of the man who threw many of the punches in the video said his father had a confrontation with a drunk passenger who wouldn’t stop bothering his mother. CBS News reported.
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Two men aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 1288 from Oakland to Lihue were seen getting into a fight on Monday, prompting passengers to intervene. (@Kauai.AirBnB via Storyful)
But regardless of the situation, aviation expert Peter Forman told CBS News that planes are “too dangerous a place to roll with the punches.”
“Keep in mind that it costs a lot of money to turn a plane around,” Forman told the outlet.
“We have tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuel. And the plane is behind schedule. It will probably take a day to get the plane back on schedule. It’s going to cause a lot of confusion for a lot of travelers and make connections. You’re failing and all that stuff is going on,” and that’s a big deal. ”
Incidents of threats and violence onboard aircraft have steadily increased since 2021, the FAA writes on its “Unruly Passenger Statistics” page.
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FAA data shows incidents of passenger misconduct are down from record highs in 2021, but are still not back to pre-pandemic rates. (Federal Aviation Administration)
According to the agency, as of February 11, 206 similar incidents have occurred so far in 2024. The number of disorderly passengers reported in 2021 was a record high of 5,973, but gradually decreased to 2,455 in 2022 and 2,075 in 2023. But disruptions still exceed pre-pandemic rates, FAA data show.
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Nevertheless, a Hawaii-based flight attendant told Hawaii News Now that she was surprised that a fight broke out on her way to her vacation destination.
“I’ve been flying for 45 years and nothing like this has ever happened,” one flight attendant told the magazine. “Probably the worst thing that happened a few years ago was a passenger ingesting a few peanuts.”
