Passenger fined $10,500 for blowing his nose into a blanket

The Federal Aviation Administration fined an ‘abusive’ JetBlue passenger $10,500 after he refused to wear mask and ‘coughed and blew his nose into a blanket.’

The man, whose name was not revealed, had boarded a JetBlue flight from Ft. Lauderdale International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport on December 27 when he began to act unruly, according to a press release from the FAA.

Rapper Lil Pump may have been the man against whom the fine was levied, the Washington Post indicated – while noting that the rapper had been banned by JetBlue for refusing to wear a mask during a flight on that same date and route.

Lil Pump has been an outspoken critic of mask mandates and said he does not ‘believe in corona,’ according to the outlet.

‘The FAA alleges the passenger repeatedly ignored, and was abusive to, flight attendants who instructed him to wear a facemask,’ the release reads.

‘At one point, while not wearing a mask, he coughed and blew his nose into a blanket. The passenger’s disruptive behavior diverted flight crewmembers from their duties.’

Nearly 1,300 cases of unruly passengers have been reported to the FAA since February, marking a large increase from previous years.

In January, the FAA announced an order ‘directing a stricter legal enforcement policy against unruly airline passengers in the wake of recent, troubling incidents.’ The agency extended the policy in March.

‘These incidents have stemmed both from passengers’ refusals to wear masks and from recent violence at the U.S. Capitol,’ FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said at the time.