Passengers behaving badly continue to plague the airline industry, including a recent flight from Indianapolis.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration said it fined two women a collective $28,500 for disrupting a February 19 Republic Airways flight from Indy to Philadelphia.
The two female passengers were problems from the moment the got on the plane because flight attendants told them multiple times to wear a mask during the boarding process.
As the flight attendants were preparing the plane for take off, the two women played "loud, obscene music," were talking over the safety announcements, and ignored requests to buckle their seat belts.
As the plane pulled away from the gate, one of the women threatened the passenger sitting in front of her after they closed the window shade.
The pilot immediately returned to the gate and told the women to leave the plane. They "began to argue and use obscene language" with the pilot.
As one of the woman gathered her things to get off the plane, "she punched the female passenger who was seated in front of her, holding a small infant, in the back of the head." She was fined $18,500 while her travel companion was fined $10,000.