Passenger drinking own liquor faces fine for disrupting Texas-bound flight, feds say

A passenger accused of disrupting a flight to Texas could face thousands of dollars in fines, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday.

The passenger was onboard a Jan. 14 Skywest Airlines flight from Yuma, Arizona, to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport when he started drinking “multiple” mini bottles of alcohol that he’d brought with him, the FAA said.

FAA regulations prohibit passengers from drinking alcohol unless it’s served by the flight crew.

Flight attendants had to move the man to another seat after he kept trying to touch a passenger sitting behind him, according to the agency.

In his new seat, the man kept pestering other passengers and getting up, prompting two off-duty law enforcement officers to “physically wrestle him back into his seat,” the FAA said.

The passenger got up again, according to the agency, and started walking to the front of the plane.

A flight attendant yelled at the passenger, demanding that he sit back down. The law enforcement officers sat behind him for the rest of the flight, the FAA said.

When the plane landed at the airport, the captain asked law enforcement to meet the aircraft at the gate.

The FAA points out that federal law prohibits interfering with flight crew and that it “is strictly enforcing a zero-tolerance policy toward passengers who cause disturbances on flights, fail to obey flight crew instructions in violation of the FAA’s regulations, or engage in conduct proscribed by federal law.”

The agency has proposed $14,500 in civil penalties against the passenger, who hasn’t been named.

The passenger will have 30 days to respond to the FAA after receiving an enforcement letter.

The FAA has also proposed fines against two other passengers accused of disrupting recent flights.

One passenger is accused of grabbing a flight attendant’s arms after drinking his own alcohol and becoming angry on a JetBlue flight from Haiti to Boston on Jan. 4, the agency said. He could face $31,750 in fines.

Another passenger on the same flight is also accused of drinking his own alcohol as well as yelling obscenities and making “motions to strike a flight attendant,” the FAA said. The agency has proposed $16,750 in fines against him.

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This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Passenger drinking own liquor faces fine for disrupting Texas-bound flight, feds say."