The agency tightened its passenger disturbance policy in mid-January.
A passenger faces a $ 27,500 fine for allegedly hitting a Delta air hostess in October.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday announced the proposed fine for the passenger.
The unnamed passenger traveled from Miami to Atlanta on October 19 on a Delta flight. They traveled, according to the FAA, and sat next to another passenger who refused to wear his mask, attach his tray or fasten his seat belt.
The flight then returned to the gate where flight attendants asked the two passengers to disembark from the plane.
“In response, the passenger who ignored the passenger, ignoring the flight attendant’s instructions, began to proclaim the air hostess and other passengers and slapped the air hostess under her left eye,” the FAA said.
In mid-January, the agency announced that it would start issuing stricter penalties to unintentional airline passengers without warning, including ‘fines of up to $ 35,000 and imprisonment’.
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson on January 13 signed an order urging the agency to adopt a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ in irregular passenger cases after the agency saw a ‘disturbing increase in incidents’ of passengers disrupting flights with a ‘threatening or violent behavior’.
“The order I signed yesterday commands my security inspectors and our attorneys and our main advisory office to exercise all enforcement authority we have,” Dickson told ABC News at the time. “What we will traditionally do if we work through these situations, there are times when each situation may be a little different, and that there may be warnings, that there may be counseling. But in this particular case, for the time being, up to March 30, we go straight to enforcement. ‘
“We can always make it a longer period,” Dickson added.
The agency said it had instituted ‘more than 1,300 enforcement actions against rioting passengers’ within the past decade, including recent cases of alleged interference with and assault on flight attendants who had instructed them to wear masks. ‘
The passenger, who faces the $ 27,500 fine, has 30 days to respond to the FAA after receiving the agency’s enforcement letter.