Buttigieg: Federal No-Fly List ‘Should Be on the Table’ for Violent Airplane Passengers

On Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that a federal no-fly list for violent airplane passengers “should be on the table.”

Anchor Dana Bash said, “I want to ask before I let you go about a flight attendant for American airlines who was hospitalized this week with a broken bone, several of them in her face after a passenger assaulted her mid-flight. So far this year, the FAA is investigating more than 900 incidents of violent or unruly passengers, and that’s up from 150 two years ago. Should there be a federal no-fly list for people who behave like this on U.S. flights?”

Buttigieg said, “I think that should be on the table. Look, it is completely unacceptable to mistreat, abuse or even disrespect flight crews. These flight attendants have been on the front lines of the pandemic from day one. And they’re up there, as the announcement always says, for your safety. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of treatment of flight crews in the air or any of the essential workers, from bus drivers to aircrews, who get people to where they need to be. The FAA stands strongly with flight crews. That’s why you’re seeing some harsh penalties and fines being proposed, and we will continue to look at all options to make sure that flight crews and passengers are safe.”

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