OPPapers.com

Unruly Passengers

generation ago, when the airlines trained their "stewardesses" or "flight attendants", it was stressed that the best way to serve the traveling public was with a friendly smile and courteous service. This, and a safe journey, was what the customers were paying for. Above all, the customer was always right. In those pre-deregulation days, passengers dressed up in coats and ties, dresses and hose when taking an airline flight.
Travel was expensive and not for everybody. Passengers treated the crew and each other with courtesy and respect. In the intervening years, many dramatic changes have taken place. Today, the bus and train depot have emptied to the airports and travel is now relatively cheap. Almost anybody can fly. Passengers are boarding airplanes in record numbers, paying a fraction of the previous airfares, and are dressing in a much more casual fashion. On many flights, vacationing passengers wear shorts and flip-flops. The Greyhound set has discovered air travel. The demeanor has also changed considerably. Instead of showing courtesy and respect to crew members and fellow passengers, passengers today are unruly and aggressive, and more and more frequently, engaging in assaultive acts against crew members and each other.

Here are some examples of some of the more outrageous recent newspaper incidents:

* An intoxicated U.S. Air passenger threw a flight attendant against the cockpit door because she refused to serve him another drink. The passenger threatened to open the door and throw her off the airplane. As a result, the flight crew were forced to divert the aircraft back to its starting point in Savannah, Georgia to hand the passenger over to authorities.

* A flight attendant and three of her fellow crew members were injured when a female passenger assaulted her for refusing to serve her another sandwich.

* A Connecticut investment banker named Gerald Finnerman, in a drunken rage, actually pulled down his pants and defecated on a food cart...