Everyone agrees drunk plane passengers are a problem - nobody agrees on how to fix it - ArkforgeAI.com

By Lilit Marcus, CNN Photo: AFP/ROLAND WEIHRAUCH Writer Amelia Mularz was on a Chicago-to-Los Angeles redeye earlier this year when a very drunk passenger plopped into the seat next to hers. As the plane pulled back from the gate, the man ran to the bathroom and, she says, threw up so much that a cleaning crew had to be called in from the airport. The passenger was then removed from the flight and the plane took off an hour late. But Mularz is far from being the only passenger who has been a first-hand witness to bad plane behaviour. When University of Texas at Dallas criminology professor Lynne M. Vieraitis analysed years' worth of in-flight passenger incident reports, she found one common theme. "Alcohol. Alcohol. Alcohol." Vieraitis and her colleague Sheryl Skaggs went through 1600 complaints filed with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, breaking down reports about misbehaving passengers into categories such as verbal abuse, physical violence and sexual harassment. "People getting into fights, people arguing with each other, not putting luggage away, not listening to directions - alcohol. Sexual assault and harassment - alcohol. The overwhelming thing reported in all these narratives was alcohol." That news may not come as a shock to anyone who has witnessed a badly behaved passenger up close. According to a report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies, 60 percent of adults from the UK say that they have dealt with drunk plane passengers, and 51 percent of those surveyed believe there is a "serious problem" with intoxicated travellers on flights. Stories about drunk fliers abound. There was the man who tried to open the plane's emergency door mid-flight and was duct-taped into his seat, and the off-duty pilot who caused chaos on an Alaska Airlines plane last year. And there are plenty more where those came from. Many, many people agree that drunk plane passengers cause problems on board - from being annoying at best, to assaulting other passengers and crew members at worst. What no one can agree on, though, is whose job it is to solve it. Playing the blame game The incident reports that Vieraitis found on ASRS were all submitted by airline staffers - either pilots, gate agents or flight attendants. Participation in ASRS is voluntary, but it can serve as a place for employees to vent about the companies they work for. "If you look at surveys of flight attendants, they say they can report things to their employer, but they don't feel like anything is done, they don't feel like the airline has their back," she says. And the unique challenges of being a flight attendant can exacerbate issues, since their workspace is a metal tube 30,000 feet in the air. "You can't kick somebody out of the bar," says Vieraitis. While some flight attendants receive specialized training for dealing with drunk, violent or abusive passengers, it's not always enough when they're expected to handle a belligerent flier while also serving food and doing safety checks. "Flight attendants are highly trained safety professionals equipped with de-escalation techniques to manage disruptive passengers and protect everyone onboard," a spokesperson for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants union tells CNN. "Inflight passenger disruptions have never been - and will never be - tolerated." There are many reasons that passengers drink. Some report that alcohol helps calm their nerves if they have a fear of flying, while others say that having a drink or two helps them sleep on the aircraft. Others admit to drinking more than they planned due to a delay, or say they didn't realize they were intoxicated until getting on board, where dehydration and cabin pressure can intensify the effects of alcohol. Vieraitis believes there may be a link between poor customer service and unruly passengers. The average airplane seat pitch has shrunk from 31-35 inches to 30-31, and reduced overhead bin space may mean that travellers wind up paying a fee to check their carry-on bag because there's no place left to stow it. Frustrated passengers plus alcohol can be a dangerous combination. Mularz, the writer who witnessed her drunk seatmate puke up his last few meals, says crew members did a great job handling the situation on her flight. However, she adds, there were some rumblings of internal disagreements. "The flight attendants said they were annoyed with the gate agent for not flagging the drunk passenger to begin with," she says. "For a second I even wondered if I was supposed to flag that he was drunk, but then I realized how bizarre that'd be to tattle on a fellow adult." Mularz's story highlights how disagreements about jurisdiction can make it difficult to deal with abusive passengers. In-flight crew members might pin the blame on ground staff, as they did in her story. But airlines themselves might say that airport bars and restaurants are responsible for letting people get drunk before they fly. Budget carrier...

Everyone agrees drunk plane passengers are a problem - nobody agrees on how to fix it

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