Airline Passengers Behaving Badly Rarely Face U.S. Prosecution
They’ve hit flight attendants in the face, phoned in hoax hijacking reports and refused masks—yet few face criminal charges.
This article is for subscribers only.
The passenger on the Alaska Airlines flight repeatedly dialed 911 before it even left the gate in Seattle. He claimed the plane was being hijacked. Then he called the FBI to say there was a bomb.
Police stormed the plane and evacuated everyone before discovering it was a hoax. The false report delayed the Jan. 23 flight for hours, forced the rescreening of baggage and may have broken a federal law that could land the passenger in prison for five years.