A Delta flight was met by police at Washington's Reagan National Airport on Thursday night after a passenger reportedly started throwing trash at other travelers. It's the second strange Delta passenger story in a week, coming just two days after another Delta customer allegedly stole an airport tug in California.
Unruly passengers
Delta's Wild Week
A stolen tug
A Delta passenger allegedly drove a baggage tug across the airfield, crashed it, then tried to take a lavatory truck.
Thrown trash
Police met Delta Flight 832 from Atlanta after a passenger reportedly threw trash at other travelers.
unruly passenger reports on US flights through August
maximum FAA fine per violation
drop in the incident rate since the early 2021 peak
Contrail
What Happened on the Flight
Delta Flight 832 left Atlanta on Thursday, October 8, for the roughly 90-minute trip to Reagan National Airport, known as DCA. Shortly into the flight, a passenger reportedly seated in first class began throwing trash at people sitting nearby, according to AIRLIVE.
The pilots alerted authorities and asked for security to meet the plane at the gate. After the Airbus A320 landed at about 7:13 p.m., law enforcement escorted the passenger off. It hasn't been reported whether the passenger was arrested or charged, and Delta hasn't commented on this specific flight.
A Stolen Tug in California
Earlier in the week, a Delta passenger booked on a flight to Seattle caused chaos of a very different kind at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
On October 6, the 26-year-old man allegedly slipped through an access door at a gate and onto the airfield, where he drove off in a baggage tug and crashed it into another vehicle. Police say he then tried to take an American Airlines lavatory service truck before officers stopped him. He was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft, trespassing and vandalism and taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Delta said it has zero tolerance for unlawful behavior and is cooperating with law enforcement. Airport officials said the incident had no lasting impact on operations.
Not Just Delta
Neither incident says much about Delta itself. Unruly passengers turn up on every airline, and Delta just happened to have two headline-grabbing cases in the same week.
The problem has improved a lot since its peak. The FAA says the rate of unruly passenger incidents has dropped by more than 80% from its record high in early 2021. It hasn't gone away, though. US airlines filed 1,163 unruly passenger reports through August this year, and the FAA has proposed about $1.5 million in fines so far.
What Unruly Flyers Can Face
Acting out on a plane can get very expensive. The FAA can fine passengers up to $43,658 per violation, and a single incident can lead to several. It refers the most serious cases to the FBI for possible criminal charges, and airlines can ban disruptive passengers from flying with them again.
For everyone else on board, the best move is usually to let the crew handle it. Flight attendants are trained to de-escalate these situations, and they can call ahead for police to meet the plane, just like the crew did in Washington.
