Halloween is coming up fast and, for many, it is a time to dress up and spend the night letting loose.
But for those spending the days leading up to the holiday traveling on a plane, the Federal Aviation Administration is warning about truly “scary behavior” that is not acceptable at any time of the year with a series of memes.
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“The scariest thing this Halloween is an unruly passenger,” the government agency in charge of transportation safety said in a new statement. To underscore the point, the FAA released a meme featuring a costume of a police officer and an “unruly passenger” done in the style of the kinds of costumes one can find at Spirit stores across the country alongside several others warning passengers to behave.
Unruly passengers seriously ruin flights, warns FAA
“What ruins your flight?” asks another meme showing a “Wheel Of Fortune”-style board with some of the letters in “unruly passengers” taken out.
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Other memes include a pilot giving a parent-style warning to behave or she would “turn the plane around.”
“I raised you better than to act this way,” says another one with a strict grandmother alongside a note saying that the “FAA has zero tolerance for not following crew instructions.”
While the memes make it seem like this refers to passengers simply being silly, an "unruly passenger" in aviation refers to someone who jeopardizes the safety of the flight in categories ranging from "suspicious or threatening behavior" to actions that are "life-threatening.”
Here is how airlines are dealing with the ‘worrying trend’ of bad passenger behavior
A recent report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed that while there was one such person for every 835 flights in 2021, that number rose to one in 568 flights by 2022 amid an increase in post-pandemic travel along with an industry-wide understaffing problem that makes it difficult for airlines to maintain the same standard passengers may have been used to pre-pandemic.
Some of the most common behaviors include verbally abusing flight attendants, fighting with fellow passengers and disregarding anti-smoking and anti-vaping laws.
"The increasing trend of unruly passenger incidents is worrying," IATA Deputy Director General Conrad Clifford said in a statement on the findings in July 2023. "Passengers and crew are entitled to a safe and hassle-free experience on board.”
Multiple pilots and flight attendants have also been putting out calls to behave as one would anywhere else in public and not disrespect air crew who are often already run thin due to understaffing.
And as Halloween is a time of tricks and for some disregarding certain common behavior, the FAA took proactive steps to warn passengers that bad behavior could earn one fines or even cause problems getting onto flights in the future.
“Historically, the agency has addressed unruly-passenger incidents using a variety of methods ranging from warnings and counseling to civil penalties,” the airline said in a much less jokey manner. “Under the new zero tolerance policy, we will not address these cases with warnings or counseling. The agency will pursue legal enforcement action against any passenger who assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crew members.”
