Cranky Skies: Fliers Behave Badly Again

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The Wall Street Journal

Cranky Skies: Fliers Behave Badly Again
As 9/11 Era Fades Airline Personnel Bear Brunt of Dissatisfaction; Rep. Filner Faces Charges
By SUSAN CAREY
September 12, 2007; Page A1

For a brief time after Sept. 11, 2001, civility seemed to reign in the skies above America... Today, the picture isn't so pretty... American Airlines told the Transportation Security Administration in July, that a passenger on a flight to New York had slapped a flight attendant across the face when the plane was ordered emptied in Miami after bad weather kept the flight from leaving. Police were called.

After a summer of packed flights, delays, lengthy security procedures and dwindling on-board amenities, airlines are dealing with what many employees, experts -- and frequent fliers themselves -- feel is a worrisome deterioration in passenger comportment. "Abnormal, aberrant or abusive behavior in the context of the air-travel experience" is back with a vengeance, says Andrew Thomas, an assistant professor of business at the University of Akron, who has written books about air rage and aviation "insecurity" and maintains a Web site called airrage.org. Mr. Thomas sees an entitlement mind-set in today's flying public, especially among business travelers. "Nobody tells a lot of these guys 'no,' " he says. "So when a flight attendant tells them to turn off the phone or the BlackBerry or that they can't have another drink, they don't know how to hear 'no,' " he says.

The numbers of unruly passenger cases tracked by government agencies vary and in many instances underreport the problem, according to authorities. The Federal Air Marshal Service shows a steady increase from 2004, when it began automated record keeping. Airport police at some large hubs also say their numbers are up in the past few years, and anecdotal evidence suggests the problem -- along with numerous lesser displays of passenger rudeness and intolerance -- is on the rise.

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In July, a doctor who missed his Northwest flight in Seattle allegedly called 911 three times to say there was a bomb on board, hoping the plane would return so he could make the flight, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The plane did come back, but the doctor was arrested for allegedly making a false threat against an aircraft.

Last month, a female United Airlines baggage employee at Dulles Airport called the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police after a passenger allegedly attempted to enter an employees-only area, pushed aside the woman's outstretched arm and refused to leave. Officers interviewed the traveler, U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat from Chula Vista, and before releasing him advised him that the United worker would be pursuing charges. A local magistrate issued a summons for the congressman to appear in court Oct. 2 on misdemeanor assault and battery charges. Rep. Filner, in a statement, said, "I did not want things to turn out as they did, with offense obviously taken and much misunderstanding." Earlier he disputed accounts of the incident as factually incorrect and said the charges were "ridiculous."

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In August, Mr. Glover says, a passenger on a flight to Dallas from Buenos Aires drank two-thirds of a bottle of his own duty-free liquor, got into a confrontation with several passengers, then urinated in the cabin before passing out in his seat. Police were called to meet the plane. Aside from giving their attendants and airport agents better training and more support, airlines can sue passengers for damages. Carriers also have a final, secret weapon: their own "no fly" lists of customers they won't transport under any circumstances.


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