Airline industry leaders address passenger disturbances and assaults in advance of oversight hearing
Unruly passengers aren't just a problem in the skies — they're a problem on the ground in airports, where gate agents have experienced what Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, called an "unprecedented increase in assaults from violent passengers."
"Our members have reported being repeatedly punched in the face, kicked, slammed against doors and counters and have even been spit on by passengers," said Nelson in her opening remarks Wednesday in front of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, according to a transcript of the prepared testimony shared with CBS News.
Nelson, whose union represents more than 20,000 attendants working for American Airlines and its subsidiaries, appeared with other industry leaders at the hearing.
Nelson did not deliver the remarks at the hearing, which was focused on federal aid to airlines and recent operations disruptions.
2021 has so far seen more than 5,500 incidents of unruly passenger behavior, including nearly 4,000 mask-related incidents, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Airline professionals now spend significant time enforcing mask-wearing, said American Airlines CEO Doug Parker in his opening statement, according to a copy of his prepared testimony.
"It's tough work because we're seeing customer emotions run high, and the industry has experienced an unsettling raft of passenger disturbances and assaults onboard aircraft and in airports," Parker said. "These incidents are not all related to masks, and the overwhelming majority of our flights take place without issue, but the general level of disrespect, anger, and impatience our team has had to manage in recent months is simply inexcusable."
While the FAA has initiated an investigation in more than 1,000 of those incidents, it has so far only initiated enforcement in 292 cases — and it can only request civil penalties. CBS News learned in November that the FAA had submitted only 37 incidents to the FBI for criminal review.
Nelson said the FAA's numbers only include incidents involving flight crews, not in the airport. No passenger involved in an incident with a ground crew member, she said, has been prosecuted under federal law.
"When incidents occur at the gates, local law officers are slow to respond, fail to properly document the incident by taking statements from witnesses and often do not detain the offending passenger," she said, according to the prepared remarks.
The FAA and Department of Justice announced last month they were developing a way to take legal action more efficiently on the most egregious cases. Nelson said Wednesday she would like an interagency working group to address how federal and local agencies should report, process, refer and prosecute assaults that happen in airports.
FAA administrator Steve Dickson said in September that while incidents were declining, they were still "two to three times above where we need to be."