A man who allegedly refused to properly wear a face mask on a Southwest flight out of Oakland is facing a $9,000 fine, the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Monday.
The Feb. 20 incident is one of about 1,900 reports of passengers refusing to comply with the federal mask mandate in 2021.
According to an FAA news release, the man was on a flight to Houston.
When a flight attendant asked him "to pull his facemask up so it covered his nose," he refused to do so. He then took a mask the flight attendant offered him and threw it on the floor, saying he wouldn’t wear it.
The man again refused to put on a face mask and said masking guidelines wouldn’t be enforced in Texas after the flight attendant asked him to acknowledge federal mask guidelines, FAA officials added.
Authorities were on hand to meet the man at the gate in Houston after the crew alerted the captain of his behavior.
The man wasn’t identified.
Three other unidentified people were fined $15,000, two of which were on JetBlue flights bound for Los Angeles. Another unidentified passenger on a flight from Orlando to New York City was fined $10,500.
Each passenger has 30 days to respond to the FAA after receiving the agency’s enforcement letter.
KCBS Radio has reached out to Southwest for comment but has not yet heard back.
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