Airline Pilots File Lawsuit Over Mask Mandate

Above, a jet being readied at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer. 

During the past two years, I have flown several times and had to wear a mask during the duration of the those flights, no matter how many hours the flight durations were, and they were miserable experiences. The only times one can remove the mask is while eating or drinking.

Well, commercial airline pilots are getting fed up with the federal mask mandate and have filed suit to end it.

The Epoch Times reported (some snippets):

Hours after the U.S. Senate voted to repeal the federal transportation mask mandate—which the White House quickly threatened to veto—a group of commercial pilots filed the first legal challenge by airline workers to overturn the requirement to wear masks on all public transport.

On March 15, 10 commercial airline pilots from six states filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), asking the court to strike down the federal transportation mask mandate, arguing that it endangers aviation safety.

The complaint was filed the same day the U.S. Senate voted 57–40 to repeal the mask mandate, a move the White House quickly threatened to veto. This is the first legal challenge to the mandate filed by airline workers.

On Feb. 25, the CDC eased indoor masking guidance for the general public. However, the CDC’s update did not change the federal mask mandate on public transportation, which had already been extended multiple times by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The latest extension, announced March 10, orders travelers to keep wearing masks until April 18.

The pilots’ 61-page complaint (pdf) contends “the defendants have acted without statutory authorization or following the rulemaking process required by the Administrative Procedure Act” and that the “mandate also raises serious constitutional concerns” because “Congress never intended for the Executive Branch to have the authority to promulgate this policy–and even if it did, it’s unconstitutional.”

In 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration reported there were 5,981 unruly passenger incidents. Of those, 4,290 involved masks. Of the 961 reports of unruly passengers already reported for the first three months of 2022, the FAA said, 635 were related to face masks.

To read the full article, go here.