A group of Republican lawmakers is facing pushback from one of the country’s leading flight attendant’s unions for opposing a nationwide no-fly list for unruly passengers.
The idea was first proposed by Delta Airlines, whose CEO in early February penned a letter to the Department of Justice that would place passengers convicted of onboard aircraft disruption on a “no-fly” list that would bar them from future travel on any commercial airline.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the move would “help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft,” according to a copy of the letter provided to Spectrum News.
Delta already curates an internal list of customers it will not allow back onboard its aircrafts, but hopes to create a national database to share across all private airlines in the United States. As of early February, Delta’s no-fly list contained nearly 1,900 names and the airline had submitted 900 banned individuals to the TSA in order to pursue possible civil penalties.
The request for a centralized no-fly list was quickly backed by the Association of Flight Attendants, a union that represents over 50,000 flight attendants across 17 airlines.
“A no-fly list should be on the table because there has to be very severe consequences for those who are acting out,” AFA president Sara Nelson told Yahoo Finance in an interview last week. “It’s a relatively small number of people, but they have created incredible harm, incredible risk to the safety of everyone on board, and at the very least a major inconvenience to the rest of the passengers.”
This week, a group of eight GOP senators issued a separate letter to attorney general Merrick Garland saying while they “strongly condemn any violence towards airline workers,” they also feel a “strong opposition to the creation of such a list.”
Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Mike Lee, R-Utah, James Lankford, R-Okla., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took issue with the request, in part because it would target those who are skeptical of mask mandates.
“Creating a federal ‘no-fly’ list for unruly passengers who are skeptical of this mandate would seemingly equate them to terrorists who seek to actively take the lives of Americans and perpetrate attacks on the homeland,” the senators wrote in part.
The federal mask mandate aboard flights has been in place for over a year, but airline workers nonetheless face a continuous stream of dangerous or disruptive behavior since the start of the pandemic – the vast majority of which stem from passenger refusal to wear a mask.
By Feb. 15, airlines had recorded 394 incidents of unruly passengers since the start of the year, 255 of which were related to face masks.
“The TSA was created in the wake of 9/11 to protect Americans from future horrific attacks, not to regulate human behavior onboard flights,” the senators’ letter continued, adding: “The creation of this list by DOJ would result in a severe restriction on the ability of citizens to fully exercise their constitutional right to engage in interstate transportation.”
The senators also voiced concerns over potential privacy issues surrounding the creation of a new no-fly list, pointing out that the no-fly list for suspected terrorists has generated much controversy due to lack of transparency and due process concerns.
The Association of Flight Attendants on Tuesday issued a strongly worded response to the senators’ letter, doubling down on the need for a centralized list of passengers that would be banned from flying “for a period of time” after being convicted of an on-plane crime.
“We’ve been punched, kicked, spit on and sexually assaulted,” union president Sara Nelson wrote in part. “This puts everyone at risk and disrupts the safety of flight, which is never acceptable and every single one of the Senators who signed this letter knows full well what is at stake if we leave a gap in aviation safety and security. It is irresponsible and political brinkmanship that will put our economic security at risk right along with our lives.”
The group urged the Department of Justice, Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration to create “a plan with due process to keep dangerous flyers on the ground.”
The FAA on Thursday confirmed to Spectrum News that as of Feb. 16, it has referred 80 cases of unruly passengers to the FBI for criminal review. The agency is aware of the requests to create a centralized no-fly list, and “welcomes input on additional steps we and our partners can take to stop unruly behavior that puts everyone at risk.”
“We will continue to work with other federal agencies, airlines, airports, labor and law enforcement to continue the downward trend in unruly incidents,” the agency added.
The FAA has already taken a number of steps to address the spike in passenger unruliness on planes. FAA administrator Steve Dickson last January announced a new zero-tolerance policy with unruly passengers: In previous years, the FAA would choose between a range of tactics – including warning notices, civil penalties or counseling – for unruly passengers.
Now, the FAA moves directly to legal action.
“Flying is the safest mode of transportation and I signed this order to keep it that way,” Dickson said at the time.
The FAA in December also announced it would notify the TSA of passengers facing fines for “bad behavior” on flights; the TSA may in turn choose to revoke the passenger’s TSA Pre-Check status, a privilege that is reserved for “low-risk travelers,” the agencies wrote in a statement.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN last week that the Biden administration is “looking at these policy recommendations,” while also acknowledging the potential challenges with the creation of such a list.
“Obviously, there are enormous implications in terms of civil liberties, in terms of how you administer something like that. I mean even when it was over terrorism, it was not a simple thing to set up,” he told CNN. “So none of these things can be done lightly. But I think all of these things need to be looked at, at a moment like this.”
Spectrum News has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
