By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters), – U.S. president Joe Biden claimed on Thursday that he has instructed the Justice Department, to deal with the increasing violence onboard planes. Some of these incidents involve the wearing of face covers.

Biden spoke at an Illinois speech, “I have instructed the Justice Department that we deal avec the violence on airplanes.” “We will deal with that.”

To date this year, there have been 4,626 reports of unruly passenger incidents https://www.faa.gov/data_research/passengers_cargo/unruly_passengers/?ipid=post_link_1, including 3,366 that were mask-related. In 177 of these cases, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has taken enforcement action and proposed more than $1,000,000 in fines.

The Justice Department has not yet commented.

Numerous incidents that occurred aboard airplanes were captured and shared by passengers on social media. It attracted significant attention.

Last month, two senior U.S. Senate Democrats urged Attorney General Merrick Garland https://www.durbin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/DOJ%20Unruly%20Passenger%20Letters%20(Sept.%2020%202021)%20Final%20Signed.pdf to investigate and prosecute unruly air passengers due to the surge in such behavior during the coronavirus pandemic.

In June, a group representing major U.S. airlines such as American Airlines (NASDAQ:), Delta Air Lines (NYSE:) and United Airlines, and aviation unions also asked Garland https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/exclusive-airlines-unions-urge-us-prosecute-egregious-onboard-conduct-2021-06-21 to prosecute the growing number of disruptive and violent air passengers.

Airlines for America sent a letter stating that “incidents present a safety-security threat for our passengers and employees.”

Delta asked other U.S. airlines last month to make available lists of people who were banned in the COVID-19 Pandemic because of disruptive behaviour. This would help to prevent the increasing number of incidents. It said that it has placed over 1,600 individuals on its “no-fly” list in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

After Trump supporters disrupted flights, Steve Dickson, FAA Administrator, imposed a January zero tolerance order for passenger disturbances on planes.

This policy will continue until the federal mask rules for airplanes, which were extended from August to mid-January 2022, are fully implemented.