Disruptive airline passengers: behavior, management, and safety

Disruptive Airline Passengers

The International Federation of Airline Pilots Association Security Committee estimates that, since 1995, the number of disruptive passengers has increased 400%. A reasonable question to ask would be: is the cause of this a change in human behavior patterns, something the airlines are doing or not doing, or factors as yet undetermined? A second reasonable question would be: what are the airlines doing about protecting other passengers and their own staffs?

The answer to the first question is that there are two causes. They are that:

Airline travel has become, as the author of the report states, cheap enough for everyone to travel; he compares it to taking the bus. This down-market slide means it is not longer a luxury, calling for people's best behavior.

Human behavior has changed, with -- apparently -- more people being:

Pathologically narcissistic with exaggerated feelings of entitlement

Pathologically oppositional to authority

Operating under one of several psychological conditions that may lead to inappropriate behaviors up to and including assault and battery. Those conditions include:

Fear of flying; fear of loss of control

Anxiety

Stress

Claustrophobia

The author also adds "Uncertainty of punishment," but that would seem to fall into the area of narcissistic behavior, or even opposition to authority.

The author notes other behaviors, themselves often symptomatic of other underlying causes, that may make an airline passenger act in a disruptive way. Those behaviors are:

Excessive alcohol consumption

Taking medications

Being addicted to smoking

Of course, none of these alone, with the possible exception of medications that may have unpredictable effects, especially when combined with alcohol or stress or when taken incorrectly, will make a passenger disruptive and cause problems for the crew. Rather, the activities must be engaged in by someone capable of acting out of any of the psychological conditions mentioned above. But when that is the case (and at other times; these are not the only -- just the major identified -- reasons passengers become disruptive), then the crew must be able to take appropriate action to safeguard the aircraft, the other passengers and the crew. So far, the author seems to say, attempts at solving that problem have been relatively inadequate, resulting either in the miscreants getting away with it, or the airline personnel being penalized inadvertently in dealing with an inadequate laws, law enforcement jurisdiction and court systems globally, and losing time from work to do so. Sometimes, they must also bear the cost of a lawsuit brought against them by disruptive passengers they have restrained.

Recommendations

Paramount among approaches to solving the problem are these actions:

Each airline formulating and posting rules concerning alcohol, smoking, rowdiness or any other behavior likely to be problematical; concurrently, training crew in guidelines for enforcing compliance.

Creating a 'time out' area of the plane, and also having reliable, non-abusive restraints available.

Having a trained law-enforcement professional on flights that have a track record or great potential for problem behavior by passengers.

Proceeding to ensure that all destinations are on the same page regarding:

Ability to detain passengers for inquiry without arresting them, as Detroit has done.

Procedure for allowing local law enforcement personnel onto planes, and ensuring that local laws will then prevail; perhaps making any disruption on a plane a felony, which need not be carried out in front of a police officer as misdemeanors must be to be directly enforceable, without complaint by a civilian.