How do you protect your privacy from the spying eyes of potentially invasive drones? HowStufWorks looks at public fears against the backdrop of the law.
Published July 25. 2021 12:09AM
Alan Levin, Jennah Haque and Thomas Taylor, Bloomberg
The passenger on the Alaska Airlines flight repeatedly dialed 911 before it even left the gate in Seattle. He claimed the plane was being hijacked. Then he called the FBI to say there was a bomb.
Police stormed the plane and evacuated everyone before discovering it was a hoax. The false report delayed the Jan. 23 flight for hours, forced the rescreening of baggage and may have broken a federal law that could land the passenger in prison for five years.
But, so far, no charges have been filed.
That may be because misconduct on airliners which in the past year includes everything from passengers who refuse to wear face masks to others who assault flight attendants is governed by a patchwork of federal, state and local agencies that aren’t always well equipped to prosecute such cases.