Crime in the sky plummeting
Friday, 28 Feb, 2012
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An intoxicated airline passenger yells "hijack" at 30,000 feet. Another man reacts to attendants stopping his drinks by throwing peanuts at her. A third man tries to open the emergency doors while in-flight.
These were real airline incidents where passengers misbehaved.
Such air rage assaults and other serious airline incidents are on the decline, however, according to reports of passenger disruptions that airlines file with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).
That is the case when measuring either incidents or actual fines paid for acts of misconduct.
The FAA last year imposed fines of $449,175, which was down 25% from the previous year. And through the end of last year, airlines filed 127 disruptive incidents compared with 149 in 2010. There were 176 incidents in 2009.
What explains the drop?
"In the late 1990s, Congress toughened penalties and made noncompliance with crew members a federal crime," says the Wall Street Journal.
Making verbal or physical threats and intimidating or assaulting a crew member in the wake of 9-11 became a federal crime. The maximum punishment though rare is harsh: up to a 20-year prison sentence and a $300,000 fine.
Airlines also on their own started instituting zero-tolerance policies. Some carriers even issued flexible handcuffs to crews.
Higher fines and increasing awareness have been the major reasons for lower incident rates, says Veda Shook, president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
"Everybody understands the importance of a calm cabin up in the sky," she told the Journal.
Airlines can and do prevent potentially disruptive passengers from boarding.
More than 17,000 passengers on fights on US airlines were denied last year. That was about 50 a day, said the Journal.
The major reason: intoxication.
By David Wilkening
David
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