In-flight outbursts, from disruptive to dangerous, continue running high over a year after airlines dropped mask requirement


Many airline passengers still don’t know how to behave.

A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight waiting at the gate in New Orleans last month opened an emergency exit, climbed onto the plane’s wing and jumped to the ground, police said. An American Airlines customer service manager was hospitalized late last month after a passenger being removed from a flight in Miami punched her in the face and pushed her down, her head striking the jet bridge.

In July, a United Airlines flight to Amsterdam was diverted when a business class flier launched into a tirade after discovering his preferred meal wasn’t available. In South Korea in May, a passenger opened his aircraft’s emergency exit midflight, forcing the jet to land.

In-flight disruptions that range from annoying to dangerous are still happening at worrisome levels, regulators and airlines say, over a year after airlines dropped a contentious mask requirement—a major reason behind a surge in onboard conflict in 2021.

The Federal Aviation Administration has recorded nearly 2,000 reports of such incidents so far this year, up 71% from 2019’s full-year tally, though lower than 2021’s unprecedented peak of 5,973 incidents.



The Transportation Security Administration said it had opened 374 investigations into passengers interfering with checkpoint screening in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, up from 287 the previous 12 months.

“Airports and what happens on airplanes are kind of a microcosm of what’s happening in society,” said Michele Freadman, a former Massachusetts Port Authority security executive who is involved in federally funded research on passenger disruptions. “We see this violence and tendency to be angry in so many different venues.”

Regulators are warning that passenger unruliness poses a significant risk to flight safety, either by passengers directly interfering with aircraft—by attempting to open doors, emergency exits or accessing the cockpit—or by preventing cabin crew from performing safety duties. At minimum, incidents can delay flights, forcing planes to return to the gate or sometimes divert.

“When a passenger does not behave properly, it’s a safety risk,” Luc Tytgat, acting executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, known as EASA, said in an interview.

“Not endangering your fellow passengers is kind of the bare minimum here,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said this week, admonishing travelers not to mistreat airport and airline workers ahead of the winter holidays. “Let’s say in addition to not assaulting anyone, be nice to them.”

Industry officials, unions and regulators say they have no clear reason for the continuing trend. Mental health is one factor, and drugs have played a role in some events, investigators say.

In October, Joseph Emerson, an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, was riding in a cockpit jump seat when he told pilots “I’m not OK,” and allegedly attempted to shut down the plane’s engines midflight, according to federal and state criminal complaints. He told authorities that he had taken “magic mushrooms” about 48 hours before the flight and that he had struggled with depression, according to court documents.

A Multnomah County, Ore., grand jury indicted Emerson this month with one count of endangering an aircraft in the first degree and 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person. He pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said he never intended to hurt anyone or put anyone at risk.

Some attribute the increase in troublesome behavior to a higher prevalence of prescription medication that has mixed badly with the reintroduction of alcohol on flights. Others say passengers are still rusty and nervous after an extended break from flying, or overwhelmed by the stresses of full planes and delays.



An airline passenger opened an emergency exit door during a flight in South Korea in May. The Asiana Airlines plane landed safely at Daegu International Airport, but some passengers were treated at a hospital. Photo: Yun Kwan-shick/Associated Press
“They’re certainly down significantly from the peak of Covid, which is really good to see. But there still are events that are out there happening,” said David Seymour, American’s chief operating officer, in an interview last month.

On Oct. 25, a JetBlue passenger on a flight from Amsterdam to New York announced to a line of passengers waiting to use the toilet stalls that he refused to wait. He proceeded to relieve himself in a bottle at his seat before launching into a verbal assault against two cabin crew. The captain chose to divert the aircraft to Boston.

Tyesha Best, a union leader and cabin crew member for JetBlue Airways, said it was one of the more severe passenger incidents experienced by JetBlue colleagues this year, some of which deteriorated into physical violence.

“If we are more worried about an unruly customer that means we’re not worried about all the other customers on the plane,” Best said. “They’re compromising our ability to have a completely calm, a completely safe cabin.”

Best said flight attendants are calling for companies to do more to prepare crews to anticipate and handle violent customers, including providing additional self-defense training.

Sotiria Anagnostou’s flight from Milwaukee to Phoenix had to make an unplanned stop in Kansas City, Mo., last month to deal with a passenger disturbance. The passenger was agitated almost from the outset, Anagnostou said, and flight attendants seemed rattled as she became more verbally aggressive.

“We were all getting the impression she was very out of touch with reality, some kind of mental break,” Anagnostou said. “I was concerned something more severe was going to happen.”

In Europe, airlines and airports are rolling out new practices to try to limit the risk of unruly behavior during the flight. A handful of airports are providing smoking zones so that travelers can smoke before boarding, and not on the aircraft, according to EASA’s head of safety promotion, John Franklin.

Iceland’s national carrier has instructed its boarding staff to ask themselves, “Would you be happy for this passenger to sit next to a child you care about?” before waving a customer through the gate, Icelandair security manager Polly Hilmarsdóttir said at the DISPAX World conference in October. Dutch flag carrier KLM Royal Dutch Airlines this month said incidents at its gates and onboard its aircraft had doubled to 30 a month this year compared with 15 in 2019.

In the U.S., passengers who act out on planes can now face stiffer penalties as the FAA and Justice Department have sought to crack down on misbehavior. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said Tuesday that the agency has a “zero tolerance” approach toward such cases.

Nearly 750 passengers have been disqualified from TSA PreCheck since late 2021 after being referred by the FAA for misbehavior, in addition to passengers who lost access to the program after causing disruptions at TSA checkpoints, TSA said.

The FAA has referred more than 270 of the most serious cases to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for potential criminal prosecution, including 39 through the first half of this year.

A federal judge last month ordered a Hawaii woman to pay nearly $39,000 in restitution to American Airlines after she pleaded guilty to interference with a flight crew member. She was sentenced to time served of about 3½ months, followed by three years of supervised release during which she won’t be able to travel on commercial flights without approval.

According to her plea agreement, the passenger used profanity and threatened the crew and passengers during a dispute over her refusal to wear a mask on a Hawaii-bound flight in early 2022, prompting the pilot to return to Phoenix.



New measures to protect staffers including expanding self-defense training are included in proposed FAA reauthorization legislation. Other proposals in Congress to create a new no-fly list preventing unruly passengers from flying on any carrier in U.S. skies so far haven’t gone anywhere.

Andrew Thomas, an associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron, has tracked the problem of “air rage” for decades. The sharp decline in incidents since the postpandemic peak is a sign that stronger enforcement works, he said, and that many people think twice before acting out if they believe they might face steep fines or flight bans.

“You’re still gonna get the outliers—you’re gonna get the drunks, the drugs, entitled, just the mentally ill—I think you’ll still always have that, that’s just the curse of air travel,” he said.

Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com and Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com

LINK; https://www.wsj.com/business/a...cy-doors-airline-pas

One thing to remember is that passengers are no longer considered people. We are just cargo that need to be managed. Pennies per west mile.

I’m of the opinion that if we were treated like valuable customers rather than cargo that needs to be tolerated a lot of the stress would go away.

Low cost seats, low or no expectations, poor service and deregulation have gotten us to where we are.

I remember flying in a jacket and tie. On my last trip a substantial fraction if the passengers were wearing pajamas and carrying luggage in plastic bags.

I saw that myself on my last business trip.

Bloke went nuts when boarding was called, cursing, throwing things, scuffling with airline staff, shouting bomb threats, even saying he hoped everyone involved died of funginating rectal cancer. It was an astonishing display, but the airline folks bloody well forced me onto that damned plane….

Real easy fix. You get put on a no fly list for certain reasons fractions.

This brings back old memories. LOL

I used to be a high-tier frequent flyer and don't miss it. Too many classless, rude passengers and too many classless, rude airline employees.

They need more Super Daves from the OC!

quote:

Originally posted by davetruong:
This brings back old memories. LOL

I’ve got 600 round trips on Southwest. I don’t recall any incidents like those mentioned in the article.

There are some clueless people out there but most of them get with the program once on board.

Its just a flying bus. Full of pissed off people.

Flying is too inexpensive. Make it cost more and the rabble will find another option.

Para’s “tubes” idea is the obvious solution to these problems.

I read the first part, I can't figure out what dropping the mask requirements have to do with the current incidents.

And yes... when you get on a plane or even walk into the terminal you become just one of the sheep. Everybody needs to accept that.... the last thing you want to do while in the herd is stand out....

the worst thing about flying is that first class is now what flying coach was 40 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
In-flight outbursts, from disruptive to dangerous, continue running high over a year after airlines dropped mask requirement


Many airline passengers still don’t know how to behave.

To me, it is just indicative of the overall downhill trajectory of civility and manner in society in general. "Us vs. Them" is a notable trait in modern life. Nowadays, we see groups of high school students beating a fellow student to death. We see countless incidences of families, groups that will tear apart a fast food restaurant, or Walmart, or mass fights at amusement parks. Etc. Etc. Violence and confrontation have become more accepted as a part of culture in American society.

As much as I disliked riding in the web sling seats on a C-130, I’d rather fly that way than in a commercial sardine can with smelly and obnoxious cattle, er…people passengers.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
In-flight outbursts, from disruptive to dangerous, continue running high over a year after airlines dropped mask requirement


Many airline passengers still don’t know how to behave.

To me, it is just indicative of the overall downhill trajectory of civility and manner in society in general. "Us vs. Them" is a notable trait in modern life. Nowadays, we see groups of high school students beating a fellow student to death. We see countless incidences of families, groups that will tear apart a fast food restaurant, or Walmart, or mass fights at amusement parks. Etc. Etc. Violence and confrontation have become more accepted as a part of culture in American society.

Why is that I wonder?

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
. . . [snip] . . .
Why is that I wonder?

Lack of consequences?

or for the conspiracy minded:

Perhaps whoever is pulling the strings thinks the rabble is easier to control if we are all fighting among ourselves rather than holding them to account for how they manage things.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
One thing to remember is that passengers are no longer considered people. We are just cargo that need to be managed. Pennies per west mile.

I’m of the opinion that if we were treated like valuable customers rather than cargo that needs to be tolerated a lot of the stress would go away.

Low cost seats, low or no expectations, poor service and deregulation have gotten us to where we are.

I remember flying in a jacket and tie. On my last trip a substantial fraction if the passengers were wearing pajamas and carrying luggage in plastic bags.

There's some truth to this, but I am in oddball's coourt here. Airliners are simply a microcosm of society as a whole. Our country has gone to hell, and we see it up close and personal in the flying Greyhounds.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
...Many airline passengers still don’t know how to behave...

...2021’s unprecedented peak of 5,973 incidents...

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
One thing to remember is that passengers are no longer considered people. We are just cargo that need to be managed...

I think the article failed to include an important fact:

In 2021, there were 5,973 incidents out of 674 Million US Passengers. That doesn't sound so bad to me. If my math is correct, that crime rate works out to 0.000886% percent. I doubt any of us live in a place with that low of a crime rate.

As a frequent flyer, I agree with NHtagMember on how airline companies see passengers.

I've never been on a plane where there was an obvious outburst. I have been involuntary denied boarding after having checked-in with ticket in hand showing an assigned seat. In that experience I had to deal with a Delta airline employee who tried to hide the compensation I was due for their overselling the seats. It was the return flight home, being 6 hours delayed in arrival didn't cause any real problems for me but the Delta employee treated me as if he was paying me out of his own pocket for their actions.

.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I used to be a high-tier frequent flyer and don't miss it. Too many classless, rude passengers and too many classless, rude airline employees.

I’ve never experienced the rude airline employees myself and I used to fly a lot for gigs. It’s the rude passengers and their narcissism. The bullshit starts as soon as I’m dropped off at the airport and checking luggage. Shit show until I’m in my rental car at the destination. I loathe it. I also don’t fly on purpose now except for annual trip to the middle of the Pacific to see my Ohana. That’s an 8 hour flight each way, direct, and because of where I’m going I’ll put up with it. I think the simple answer is if I’m not leaving my home for 2 straight weeks, none of it is worth it. A one week vacation, meh, I’d rather do a staycation at home. I need to be leaving for 2 full weeks, on vacation, not work, to put up with the airport and the rude fucking passengers. You just want to slap the fuck out of some of them, bitch slap style.