FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson told a Senate committee the CDC, not the FAA, is the lead agency charged with mandating safety precautions against the spread of the coronavirus.
When it comes to having passengers wear face masks on planes,"reports have shown enforcement for noncompliance has been uneven and difficult," said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona,"The FAA needs to do more to ensure the aviation system is mitigating the spread of the virus."
Sen. Brian Schatz reacted when Dickson referred to new"guidelines" being developed to aid airlines with practices to help ward off COVID-19. "Is this, like, a philosophical thing with you folks?" the Democrat from Hawaii asked."I just don't get why you wouldn't want this to be mandatory," Dickson replied by citing Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao's policy that"these will not be regulatory mandates."Dickson added, however, that the agency is monitoring airlines' voluntary safety programs"to make sure they are following through" and that airlines have been better about enforcement.
Most airlines require passengers to wear masks. Some say they are trying to take other precautions, like checking passengers' temperatures before they board planes and leaving middle seats empty when flights aren't full.
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