Perspective: As unruly airline passenger incidents take off, a search for solutions
By Christopher Elliott Christopher Elliott Email Bio Follow Columnist April 4 at 1:55 PM Incidents involving unruly airline passengers have been rising in recent years . In 2017, airlines reported one altercation for every 1,053 flights, up 35 percent from the previous year, according to the International Air Transport Association .
It looks like a simple problem: Too many airline passengers are getting drunk. But the solution is not so simple. Some passengers say the obvious answer is for airlines to limit sales of alcoholic beverages. But airlines are leaning toward a regulatory fix, perhaps because they’re reluctant to lose the revenue from selling alcohol to passengers.
Randall Flick, a recently retired airline pilot, recalls one traveler who breezed past a gate agent and boarded Flick’s plane while “heavily” intoxicated. “I told him that he wasn’t getting on his flight. I don’t think he really understood,” says Flick, who lives in Sellersburg, Ind. Federal law prohibits flight crews from allowing “obviously intoxicated passengers” to board aircraft, and it doesn’t allow flight attendants to serve alcohol to anyone who appears intoxicated. Another regulation prohibits passengers from “assaulting or intimidating” crew members and interfering with their duties. Doing so carries a fine of up to $35,000 and a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
But alcohol isn’t always the problem. Consider what happened this year on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. A passenger allegedly refused to stay seated and walked toward the cockpit several times. The flight diverted to Portland, Ore., and police arrested the passenger, who told authorities that he had been high on methamphetamines before he boarded the plane.
Experts believe that a few practical steps would also reduce the number of unruly passengers in the air. MedAire’s Quigley says airlines need to develop an industry-wide policy that limits the number of drinks per passenger and to enforce this policy consistently. Gate-screening processes should also be tightened, he says, and should involve airport-security personnel, not just airline employees.
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