Thread by @bopinion

President Biden has just signed an executive order mandating face masks in airports and on planes, as well as in federal buildings and other modes of transportation.

For many flight attendants and passengers, this is a welcome move trib.al/hkXZ6U0

Shortly after the U.S. Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6, an American Airlines flight from Washington to Phoenix faced its own insurrection.

Despite pleas from flight attendants, some passengers refused to wear masks and chanted “fight for Trump” and “USA!” trib.al/hkXZ6U0

The situation became so tense that the pilot took to the intercom and threatened to “put this plane down in the middle of Kansas and dump people off” if they didn’t behave.

It wasn’t the only flight that faced unrest, and crews were braced for more trib.al/hkXZ6U0

American Airlines stopped serving alcohol on flights to and from Washington prior to the inauguration, and the FAA promised to strengthen enforcement.

While those were good steps, they were insufficient. Airlines needed government support trib.al/hkXZ6U0

The problem has been building for some time.

Last April, United Airlines became the first company in the U.S. to require flight attendants to wear face coverings. Others soon followed trib.al/hkXZ6U0

Although flight crews supported the idea, they didn’t think it went far enough.

So the Association of Flight Attendants wrote to then-Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao requesting an emergency regulation requiring face coverings for passengers trib.al/hkXZ6U0

That the airlines needed help managing this problem was obvious.

By late spring, mask-wearing had become deeply politicized, and tensions were spilling over into cabins mid-flight, often creating dangerous conflicts between passengers and crews trib.al/hkXZ6U0

By mid-May, United was asking its flight attendants to use “de-escalation skills” when passengers declined to wear face coverings.

In one case, a dispute became so intense that the captain descended to the wrong altitude, putting an entire plane at risk trib.al/hkXZ6U0

Doing battle with culture-warriors in the midst of a pandemic just isn’t part of a flight attendant’s job description. So airlines started banning noncompliant passengers outright. As of Jan. 1:

✈️United: 370 customers banned
✈️Delta: 600 customers banned
trib.al/hkXZ6U0

The Trump administration had been all but absent in this dispute.

In October, the Department of Transportation turned down requests for a federal mandate, noting that it “embraces the notion that there should be no more regulations than necessary” trib.al/hkXZ6U0

A mask mandate was obviously needed in October, and it’s even more urgent now.

Few symbols have become more potent than face coverings. Expecting flight crews to manage those tensions on the basis of corporate policies is both unrealistic and unsafe trib.al/hkXZ6U0

No doubt, some may resist at first. But passengers have gotten used to all sorts of restrictions on personal behavior during flights, including smoking bans.

They’ll no doubt make their peace with this one too, regardless of their partisan affiliation trib.al/hkXZ6U0