Earlier this week, airline news was full of reports about an American Airlines flight that was diverted to Baltimore due to a disruptive first-class customer, who was eventually duct taped to a seat to control him.
Several also reported that potential fines for this passenger could exceed $40,000.
The TSA and FAA have posted on social media and their websites in the past year that they have a “zero tolerance” policy toward inappropriate behavior. The TSA tweeted out last holiday season that, “passengers who engage in unruly behavior at the checkpoint or inflight may face substantial penalties and possible prosecution on criminal charges.”
FAA Fines for Bad Behavior
The FAA’s website notes that engaging in disruptive or violent behavior on an aircraft—or failing to follow the instructions of crew members—can result in travel restrictions, jail time, or fines. Travel restrictions can include revoking eligibility for the TSA PreCheck program or being added to internal no-fly lists for individual airlines. Fines can reach as high as $43,658 per incident for disruptive or violent behavior, and a single incident can possibly result in multiple fines.
So far in 2026, the FAA reports that there have been 1,163 unruly passenger reports, 89 investigations initiated, and 72 enforcement actions initiated.
In total, the agency has fined unruly passengers a total of $1.5 million in 2026 through August.
Although these numbers seem high, the 1,163 incidents so far (which would translate to 1,745 for the year at this rate) are trending just a bit higher than 2025’s total incidents of 1,621, and well below 2024’s 2,096 incidents. The drama peaked in 2021, likely due to stress from COVID, when the FAA reported 5,973 incidents.
“The rate of unruly passenger incidents steadily dropped by over 80 percent since record highs in early 2021, but recent increases show there remains more work to do,” said the FAA.
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