By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Major airlines were urged by U.S. legislators to support mandatory training of flight crew to deal with violent incidents. This is in response to a record-breaking number of onboard disruptive incidents.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), on Wednesday, reported that they received record numbers of 5,779 passenger complaints this year. These included 4,156 reports related to passengers being required to wear masks to prevent the pandemic coronavirus.

Last month, the FAA reported that it had sent 37 passengers who were not in good behavior to the FBI, in violation of its “zero-tolerance”, policy. 1054 investigations were initiated and 325 enforcement actions have been taken by the FAA.

Bennie Thompson (House of Representatives Homeland Security chair) and Peter DeFazio (Transportation and Infrastructure chair), along with two other key subcommittee members, sent letters Wednesday to American Airlines (NASDAQ (), Delta Air Lines NYSE (NYSE), United Airlines and Southwest Airlines requesting that they require all crewmembers to participate in the Transportation Security Administration Crew Member Self Defense Training program.

They want “to ensure they are prepared with the skills to prevent and mitigate dangerous situations such as passenger behaviour spikes in the country.”

They demand that airlines provide paid travel for their crew members to take part in federal air marshal training.

After having to suspend the program due to COVID-19, TSA resumed providing self-defense programs for free in July.

American Airlines stated Wednesday that it considers the safety of its frontline employees to be its highest priority. We appreciate this commitment by lawmakers. The letter is being reviewed.”

The holiday travel boom has prompted the TSA to take this step. In the six last days, 1.98million or more passengers have been screened by TSA.

TSA and the FAA announced Tuesday that passengers who are not in line with TSA PreCheck eligibility may be expelled.

Merrick Garland, U.S. AG, ordered federal prosecutors to focus on prosecutions against airline passengers who have committed assaults aboard airplanes.

Unruly passenger fines have been issued by the FAA to more than $1.4million. Many passengers refused to wear masks and were fined $9,000 or more.

October 8th, President Joe Biden directed the Justice Department “to deal” with an increasing number of violent incidents aboard planes.

A U.S. prosecutor in Colorado has charged a Californian man aged 20 with punching an attendant on an American Airlines flight that was bound for Santa Ana (California) on Oct. 27, 2018. This caused the plane to crash and land.