Frankfurt Anyone who took Delta Airlines flight DL 097 from Paris to Detroit last Friday will probably not soon forget this trip. Instead of the US car metropolis, the Airbus A330 landed in Stephenville, Canada, with 261 passengers on board. The reason: a passenger was completely freaked out.
Apparently dramatic scenes took place on board: According to the authorities, a 38-year-old American was so angry that he was fixed in his seat by the cabin crew. But the man broke free. Several passengers are said to have tried to tame him until he landed. The pilot made an emergency call.
Situations like this are no longer exceptional. The global airline association IATA presented shocking figures a few days ago. According to this, the number of incidents on board – in technical jargon this is referred to as “unruly passenger incidents” – rose by 47 percent in the past year.
According to IATA, every 835th flight was affected in 2021, and every 568 by 2022. There are around 90,000 flights worldwide every day, on average the cabin crew has to deal with customers on 158 flights who misbehave.
The industry had expected a relaxation on board after the corona requirements were lifted. During the pandemic, stewardesses and stewards have repeatedly had to deal with passengers who refused to wear their masks. In fact, the number of incidents dropped in early 2022 as many countries eased onboard protections. However, as the year progressed, the value rose again.
Bringing alcohol becomes a problem
According to IATA, cabin crew most often deal with inflight rule violations, verbal abuse and intoxicated passengers. Despite the smoking ban, passengers use e-cigarettes or even real cigarettes, and seat belts are not worn.
In addition, alcohol that you bring with you is consumed. This is also generally prohibited on board. Although the cabin crew serves alcohol themselves, they have control over consumption and can take countermeasures if in doubt.
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Certainly the most depressing number concerns the category “physical attacks on other passengers and crew”. Overall, they occur significantly less frequently than the other offenses. But their number rose by 61 percent in 2022. “It is unacceptable that rules for the safety of all are disregarded by a small but persistent minority,” said Conrad Clifford, IATA’s deputy director general in Istanbul on Sunday.
A list published in April by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides insights into what sometimes happens on board. According to this, in March this year a passenger tried to open the door during the flight and attacked a stewardess with an improvised weapon. In January 2023, there were five attacks on flight attendants or other passengers, and there were also reports of sexual harassment.
Some countries are now taking tough action against the “perpetrators”. The FAA points out that penalties of an average of 37,000 US dollars can be imposed for such offenses. In 2022 alone, the authority fined recalcitrant passengers to make payments totaling $8.4 million.
In particularly severe cases, the penalties can be significantly higher. In April last year, a passenger even had to pay $82,000. She had physically assaulted a flight attendant who was trying to help another passenger who had fallen. She also tried to open the cabin door.
In the case of particularly serious offenses, there is also a risk of imprisonment
Hart also fined a 29-year-old from Britain in a Manchester court in early April. He has to go to prison for 18 months. The man gave Emirates passengers and crew a real horror flight. He had been drinking heavily before his flight from Pakistan to Manchester via Dubai. On board, he continued to drink until the crew cut off supplies.
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He then tried to persuade other passengers to order for him – with increasing aggressiveness. He also attacked the cabin crew, slapped a stewardess on the bottom and threatened to burn her nose and ears. Eventually the man passed out. According to media reports, the background to the freak was an unhappy wedding in his parents’ home country of Pakistan.
The FAA now refers many incidents to FBI investigators, with more than 250 cases between the end of 2021 and the end of May this year, the agency reports. The FBI even recently launched its own website that explains how to investigate such crimes and how passengers can report incidents.
Stewardesses and stewards around the world are increasingly having to deal with unruly passengers.
(Photo: Lufthansa)
This shows how seriously the authorities take the development. Because so far, the high penalties have hardly deterred unreasonable passengers. By the end of May this year, the FAA had already registered around 740 events on board for its US area of responsibility.
The airline association IATA is therefore calling on all countries to take consistent action against recalcitrant passengers and to establish appropriate penalties by law. Governments have the ability to do this. Since 1969, the Tokyo Convention has regulated how to deal with such situations in aviation. The requirements were expanded by the 2014 Montreal Protocol. However, not all states have ratified this set of rules to date.
“No one wants to stop people from having a good time when they go on holiday,” said Conrad Clifford of IATA. “But we all have a responsibility to behave respectfully towards the other passengers and the crew.”
Incidentally, for the rioters on Delta Flight 097, the journey ended in Canadian prison. Local police arrested the man on the plane. One was glad when the plane landed and only felt safe when one saw the Canadian police cars, a passenger later reported to local media. The whole thing was a little creepy.
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