The No-Fly list does not yet include people in viral videos being removed from airplanes, TSA says

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While at least one member of Congress and aviation personnel unions has called for known rioters to be placed on the FBI-administered no-fly list, which is designed to prevent known and suspected terrorists from getting air tickets, it is not clear whether that step has been taken.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

Federal officials and DC police are still working to identify and track down many of the rioters, even though at least 20 federal criminal suspects have been arrested across the country.
When a person is placed on the federal no-fly list, they will be stopped or undergo additional screening before going through a TSA checkpoint, according to the TSA.
That means the widespread footage of angry travelers being forced from planes or screaming in a terminal is unlikely to respond to news that they have suddenly been put on the federal government’s no-fly list, the TSA said. Rather, they are images of a known problem that has plagued airlines for months: flight attendants and airline personnel are forced to deal with situations where angry passengers refuse to adhere to Covid-19-related safety policies.
While airline CEOs have said the vast majority of passengers are abiding by the rules, anti-mask wearers who vocally refuse to wear protective gear have disrupted flights in several high-profile cases.
(Conspiracy theories that the president has not disavowed – and which he has occasionally spurred – have attempted to paint Covid-19 as a “ hoax. ”)
Last year, airlines warned passengers that they can maintain their own no-fly lists designed to ban disorderly customers from flying in the future. Hundreds of passengers are currently on those lists.
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However, airlines and two unions representing flight attendants have said they are concerned about in-flight security as the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol last week left the Washington DC area – especially after several hassles on flights to DC. of the uprising.

“We are incredibly concerned about recent politically motivated incidents on board passenger aircraft,” said APFA Chairman Julie Hedrick. “Regardless of a person’s political affiliation, the cabin of a commercial aircraft must necessarily be a quiet environment for the safety of everyone on board.”

Alaska Airlines said in a statement that it banned 14 passengers who boarded a flight from DC to Seattle the day after the riot because they refused to wear masks and were “rowdy, quarrelsome and harassing our crew members.”

Alaska said it has banned a total of 302 passengers so far for violating mask policy since it went into effect on August 7.

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The airlines do not necessarily share their no-fly lists with each other. For example, the Delta CEO said last month that about 700 people are on the company’s no-fly list. The difference means that unruly passengers can easily book flights on different planes.

Meanwhile, union representatives are calling on the FBI to add as many rioters as possible to the federal no-fly list, and are encouraging federal regulators to do more to discourage dangerous or disruptive behavior on flights.

“Airlines and law enforcement agencies this week bolstered security at airports in the Washington area following reports of ‘mob behavior’ on flights in and out of the region surrounding Wednesday’s siege on the Capitol Building on Wednesday,” said a Jan. 9 statement. of the Association of Stewardesses. Every airline that has flown out of the region in recent days has experienced incidents on board. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), President of the Flight Attendants House Homeland Security, urged TSA and the FBI on Thursday to perpetrators “who participated in the Capitol. riots on the federal No-Fly List.”

Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said in a statement Monday that he is urging the FAA and its administrator, Stephen Dickson, to “ limit the likelihood that the nation’s commercial aviation system could be used as a mass resource. transportation to Washington, DC, for further violence related to the inauguration. “

The FAA issued a separate statement announcing “unruly behavior on an airplane could violate federal law” and could result in jail time and fines of up to $ 35,000.

Additional reporting by Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean.

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