New FAA Message Offers Behavior Advice from Kids
Joe Cortez July 06, 2021
The Federal Aviation Administration is hoping that the advice of kids will get through to badly behaving passengers. The latest PSA is an attempt to curb a very disturbing trend of disrupting flights, resulting in over 3,200 reports of bad passengers and 83 with penalties.
As the number of incidents continues to grow, the Federal Aviation Administration is hoping the words of children can speak reason to the situation. Along with announcing another round of penalties totaling $119,000, the agency is also launching a new public service announcement, featuring kids talking about appropriate airline behavior.
New PSA Targets Adults Behaving Worse than Children on Flights
Since the FAA began tracking complaints in January 2021, they report receiving approximately 3,271 from airlines around passengers behaving badly. Among those, the large majority – about 2,745 – are about passengers who refuse to wear face coverings.
With the hope of reducing the number of incidents on flights, the agency is now launching a new campaign to remind the public of the “zero tolerance policy.” The 30-second web video features several kids talking about appropriate behavior aboard flights, while expressing their frustration on the cases this year.
“They’re a grownup, and they have to play a good role model,” one of the kids says. Another explains: “You could distract the pilot if it gets that bad.”
It is unclear where the web video will be featured beyond the FAA’s YouTube channel, or if it will be part of a larger communications campaign.
It’s not just the FAA getting involved in reminding flyers to keep a level head when they travel. The Transportation Security Administration is also reminding the public to stop fighting in the airport and “respect our officers.”
The third rule of Fight Club is… Stop! No fighting in the airport.#RespectingOurOfficers https://t.co/D0PQ3uIkRZ
— TSA (@TSA) July 6, 2021
With New Penalties, Total Goes Beyond $682,000
As the FAA pursues another round of financial penalties totaling $119,000, the total sought against passengers behaving badly has exceeded $682,000 in 2021. The newest proposed penalties include:
- $21,500 against a Fronter Airlines passengers on a Dec. 27, 2020 flight accused of not wearing a face covering and drinking alcohol not served to him. After being cut off and given a “red card” for not complying with face coverings, he reportedly got argumentative and struck another passenger in the head.
- $18,500 against a Republic Airlines passenger from a Feb. 19, 2021 flight, accused of not wearing a face covering and ignoring flight attendant instructions to be seated and not play loud, obscene music on the flight. She was ultimately ordered off the aircraft by the captain.
- $10,500 against an Alaska Airlines passenger on Jan. 23, 2021, who allegedly called 911 as his aircraft was taxing and claimed the flight was being hijacked at knifepoint. The flight was taken to a cargo loading area, where law enforcement boarded with rifles. The flyer also reportedly told the FBI a bomb was on board, causing the aircraft and passengers to get re-screened.
If people would stop being a-holes the fighting would stop.
Using kids to mask shame adults? Wow.
How cute. Good to see our government spending money so wisely once again.
I find it pretty off-putting when people use children as their mouthpiece in order to manipulate the audience's emotions (when most of the time the children don't even understand what they're talking about). Here it's even worse because the people who need the message won't see it, and those who aren't the problem will just find it patronizing. Swing and a miss here, IMHO.
I'd like to be positive but realistically, you're going to use kids to try to advertise some sense into badly behaving adults ?? The same adults that obviously had little or no discipline or accountability to parents, schools, employers, etc ??