As our thoughts turn to the Summer holiday season (at least in the Northern hemisphere) airlines are bracing themselves for an increased number of so-called ‘Air Rage’ incidents where a passenger's behaviour – often fuelled by alcohol and the confined environment - puts their safety and that of fellow passengers at risk. Unlike some of the problems we may see in our city centres these incidents occur at 35,000 feet where there is no possibility of immediately removing the culprit.
Recent examples underline the difficulties airlines face, in January on a flight from Cancun, Mexico to Manchester, a drunken male passenger attacked a cabin steward shouting 'You're all going to die!' before trying to open the cabin door in-flight. Alcohol also played a role in an incident last month where Inter Milan soccer supporters travelling to Amsterdam threatened cabin crew and, worryingly, as preparations were being made for landing some refused requests to sit down and wandered around the cabin. One incident even involved a respected British diplomat - the Defence Attaché to Thailand - who was charged with the use of threatening behaviour and being drunk on an aircraft after his flight landed in Heathrow, London on 17 February.
So what can airlines do to combat ‘Air Rage’? As well as keeping an eye on alcohol consumption, particularly on long haul flights, they can apply covert and/or overt CCTV cameras in the passenger cabin connected to a digital video recorder. Panic alarms at flight attendant's stations can be pressed to start off the recording of a camera covering an incident and summon assistance from other cabin crew and alert the flight deck. Any images collected can be used in the prosecution process to secure a conviction and make passengers think twice before they behave in this way in future.
