See the social-media memes the FAA is using in its push to wrangle unruly passengers

• The FAA is taking a very "online" approach to dealing with a rise in unruly passenger behavior.
• The agency made several memes that warn travelers of fines and fees awaiting disorderly passengers.
• The FAA implemented a zero-tolerance policy earlier this year amid an uptick in unruly passengers.
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Amid a record-breaking onslaught of unruly passenger behavior, the Federal Aviation Administration is using social media to end misconduct in an extremely "online" way.

As part of its public-awareness campaign, the agency created a set of educational memes to educate and warn travelers about the hefty penalties and costly fines awaiting passengers who shirk mask requirements, assault flight attendants, or otherwise disrupt an aircraft.

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration said airlines had reported 3,715 incidents of unruly passengers so far this year, more than 75% of which involved reports of people refusing to wear federally-required face masks on planes.

Of the nearly 4,000 reported incidents, the FAA said it had started investigating more than 600 – nearly double the combined number it investigated in 2019 and 2020.

The administration has tried a slew of measures to crush the misbehavior since the start of the year, including implementing a zero-tolerance policy for unruly behavior back in January, and asking US airports and local law enforcement to get involved in protecting passengers and flight attendants from disorderly travelers.

But the agency was still looking for additional ways to address the disturbing trend. According to The Washington Post, senior officials at the FAA asked the agency's communications teams to brainstorm ways to deliver an impactful message to travelers - an assignment that led to the birth of the memes.

"We were just struggling with the fact that warning people about the safety risks wasn't working," Lauren Hyland, a project manager told The Post. "Threatening them with fines and jail time isn't working. Like how do we get people to listen? We were like: 'Shame? Guilt? Laughter? What do we do? Let's throw everything out there and see what works.'"

The first meme, a photo of a lime green truck that taunts viewers: "You could have spent $35,000 on a new truck, but instead you are paying a fine because you punched a flight attendant," was rolled out right before the July 4 holiday weekend.

Since then, the agency's social media accounts have posted memes that reference the movie 'Fight Club," play on the "don't make me turn this 'plane' around" trope, and feature an elderly grandmother nagging, "I raised you better than to act that way."

In addition to the meme offerings, the team also created a "Kids Talk" video featuring young children opining on adults who behave poorly during flights.

As a federal agency, the FAA's social media postings have to be approved by officials as high up as the office of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, The Post reported. But members of the meme development team told the outlet they've received positive feedback from higher ups.

"You imagine them to be, like, buttoned up and really concerned, and to just hear that they're willing to go on this ride with us and to trust us is a really good feeling," Hyland told The Post.

And according to Hyland, the meme dream team at the FAA isn't done yet.

"We don't want to saturate the market in such a way that it's not making an impact," she said. "So we're kind of keeping a few things in our back pocket."