A couple of years back, Sky, a 35-year-old flight attendant, noticed a passenger behaving erratically at boarding. When she took drink orders, she kindly advised he just have a Coke, somewhat than the whiskey and Coke he asked for.
He didn’t take the suggestion well.
As an alternative, he followed her to the back of the plane, grabbed her wrist, slammed her against a wall and shouted, “You’re not gonna serve me one other drink? It’s essential serve me one other drink! I can’t be on this flight for 3 more hours without one other drink.”
Such incidents was once extremely rare. But, now, coping with unruly passengers has develop into an everyday a part of the job, Skye said.
Because the end of 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has sent greater than 270 cases of unruly plane passengers — including 22 earlier this month — to the FBI, with the aim of probably pursuing criminal charges. Sky and other flight attendants say it’s high time something be done about how crazy things have gotten within the air.
“I’ve kept a tally, and I could’ve kicked off 70 passengers at this point if I actually desired to,” she said, noting that she now deals with a big incident at the very least once a month.
Something must be done, but she isn’t optimistic that the feds are the answer.
“I’m not convinced in the warmth of the moment, an unruly passenger will reason with the concept of federal charges,” she said. “On airplanes, there’s such limited space … Things can escalate faster than normal. Persons are on edge.”
COVID and disputes over masks ignited a hostility in passengers that has remained post pandemic, Sky said.
Meanwhile, most people has been made increasingly aware of those occurrences because of viral videos —Tiffany Gomas shouting “that motherf–ker is just not real” and a catfight on a plane to Las Vegas that necessitated an emergency landing — captured by bystanders.
RJ, a 32-year-old who has worked as a flight attendant for a decade, recalled his worst incident with a drunk passenger. On a flight from Kansas City to Los Angeles, he served a lady a glass of wine, only to have her later come as much as him on the back of the plane and demand one other drink.
When he delicately suggested she have some water as an alternative, things quickly took a turn.
“She screamed a slur at me, and I used to be done along with her,” said RJ, who flies for Southwest and declined to provide his last name for skilled reasons. “I immediately called the pilot. While I used to be on the phone with my back facing her, she began making weird noises.”
The lady then grabbed one other flight attendant’s bag and threw its content across the plane.
Thankfully there was an air marshal on the flight, an increasingly rare occurrence.
(In late November 2022, the manager director of the Air Marshal National Council told Fox News that marshals were on lower than 1% of flights as they were being assigned to ground duties on the southern border.)
The lady hit the air marshal repeatedly as he restrained her with zip ties and buckled her back right into a seat.
“It was like The Exorcist come to life,” said RJ. “She was going nuts.”
Upon landing, the FBI arrived and only briefly detained the girl, based on RJ.
“That was it,” he said. “There’s no justice for erratic behavior.”
In an announcement issued to The Post, Southwest Airlines said it “zero-tolerance stance against unruly behaviors” and “We’ve established reporting procedures and programs to support our valued flight attendants, including potentially restricting a person’s future travel on Southwest Airlines.”
RJ disagrees.
“These items happens on a regular basis, and the airline doesn’t support us,” he said. “We’re underpaid, days are long, passengers are crazy. I’m bewildered. The airline industry is in crisis.”
