WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials claimed Monday they are seeking far more than $160,000 in fines from 8 airline travellers over incidents involving alcohol.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported the greatest single proposed high-quality, topping $40,000, consists of a passenger who introduced alcoholic beverages on the airplane and drank it, smoked cannabis in the lavatory, and sexually assaulted a flight attendant on a Southwest Airlines jet in April.

Law enforcement arrested the passenger after the airplane from San Jose, California, landed in San Diego, and billed the particular person with resisting arrest and general public intoxication, in accordance to the FAA. It was not distinct why the passenger was not billed with assault. The FAA does not have authority to file felony costs.

The FAA did not determine any of the 8 passengers, who deal with a mixed total of $161,823 in civil penalties, despite the fact that they have the proper to contest the allegations. In some conditions, airline crews diverted flights to land extra quickly since of the passengers’ erratic behavior.

The proposed fines stand for the most recent salvo in the FAA’s endeavor to crack down on unruly passengers on planes, a issue that grew to become much a lot more common starting off in January. Airways have claimed far more than 5,000 incidents of unruly travellers to the FAA this year.

Most of the incidents have associated travellers refusing to observe the federal need for passengers to use facial area masks though on planes, but almost 300 have associated intoxicated travellers, according to the FAA.

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