Unruly airline passengers

[kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Dominion Post....

Cabin crews' worst nightmares

By Dominion Post staff reporters | 5:00AM - Monday, 29 September 2014

MORE THAN 150 unruly aircraft passengers assaulted and verbally abused cabin crews, threw meal trays, got aggressively drunk, and smoked on board flights in the last few years, Civil Aviation Authority information shows.

Figures from the authority reveal 160 incidents of wayward passenger behaviour on flights within New Zealand between 2010 and 2013, and a flight attendant spokesman says some cabin crew have “sought help after a traumatic event”.

The figures also reveal 95 infringement notices issued to passengers for the possession of dangerous goods on board an aircraft. Items defined as dangerous goods include bullets, fireworks, pesticides, lithium ion batteries and aerosols.

CAA spokesman Mike Richards said there were also two violent incidents between 2010 and 2013, both of which occurred on Boeing 777 aircraft.

In January 2012, a deportee became unruly and a cabin crew member was assaulted. Police had to meet the plane at Auckland airport.

In the second incident, in March 2013, a passenger verbally abused a crew member, pushed them and threw a tray. The passenger had to be restrained by other crew members.

Richards said about 60 percent of incidents were on domestic flights, with about 40 percent on international routes, which highlighted a disproportionate number of instances on aircraft that had no safety screening for passengers.

“I would say that 60-65 percent of the domestic occurrences are taking place on our smaller, below 90 seat, aircraft,” he said.

Under current civil aviation laws domestic flights with seating capacity below 90 do not require security screening of passengers or hand luggage.

Around 42 percent of passengers on domestic flights are unscreened. Richards said infringement notices usually resulted in a fine. More minor offences such as smoking and using an electronic device during take-off or landing resulted in fines of $500, and more serious crimes such as drunkenness resulted in fines of $600-$1000.

Flight Attendants and Related Services Association spokesman Strachan Crang said flight attendants were trained on how to deal with unruly passengers, working as a team to defuse them, but dealing with unruly behaviour contributed to workplace stress.

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/61551917/cabin-crews-worst-nightmares

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Related issue:

“Green light for midair phone calls and texts”

Read more in THIS THREAD.

[Dave Homewood]

150 in "the last few years", so hat is what, 50 per year? Not bad considering how many passengers fly in NZ through a year, compared with unruly customers in bars

[beagle]

get a naughty chair and bolt it down on the wing for those unruly pax

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Wait until passengers are allowed to use their mobile phones to make phone calls and send texts during flights. Then you'll start seeing unruly passengers as some people take exception to inane phone conversations going on next to them and indulge in a bit of air-rage in retaliation (see the link to the other thread).

[beagle]

yep, hate people at a restaurant with cell phones.
If that happened on board I would just turn up my lap top with you tube playing a spitfire roaring around.
either that or take a teething baby

[Darren Masters]

I don't know about these figures. I tell you, we get one dickhead most flights. I don't know what happens it is like magic. The door closes and we take off and somebody can become and instant dickhead. With all the training, constant checks,testing and re-training we get life is too short to put up with crap from passengers. Sure, when there is a legitimate reason and someone is venting, fair call. There is a huge difference between that though and being a general tool. In 8 yrs of flying the other day I saw something that I would never have imagined. A lady relieving herself in the cabin in her seat in a sandcastle bucket. Ah yep.

[Dave Homewood]

I think incidents would likely be reduced significantly if they removed bars from the airports.

[Dave Homewood]

Darren, how did you guys handle that rather tricky incident. Was she insane?

[falcon124]

The cheaper the seats, the more the loonies can afford to fly. At least when it was way more expensive to fly you got a higher class loony and much better stories to tell when something "odd" did eventually happen

[eieio]

I am sure you are on track Dave, and dump the inflight booze too !Less oxygen is bad enough without diluting the blood as well

[Darren Masters]

Agree with what lots of you have to say. Thing is Falcon, our fares are up there with the national carrier (being the direct partner) but hey, you will get one in every crowd right? One annoying thing is that duty free insists on selling miniatures at the airport. Bad news. Convenient pocket size and you can guess the rest. Sure, we are trained on what to look out for and you get that 'sixth sense' the longer you have been flying....but, it is IMPOSSIBLE to see everything. Dave, I had to use hand signals and other motions. Was not pleasant. I'm sure they had never been on a plane before (well maybe with THEIR national carrier) where they probably would have got away with it.

[falcon124]

Oct 1, 2014 19:02:49 GMT 12 Darren Masters said:

Thing is Falcon, our fares are up there with the national carrier (being the direct partner) but hey, you will get one in every crowd right?

Yup, there's one weirdo in every crowd (usually it's me ) but I was referring more to the "good ol' days" when it used to cost you $500, half a kidney and your first born child to fly one way from Wellington to Auckland (or Sydney to Melbourne if you're over here ). It sure kept most of the riff raff out and ensured any scandalous behaviour was usually pretty bloody spectacular

[Dave Homewood]

But you can get an intercity coach that from Auckland to Wellington or most other cities and towns around NZ for as little as $10 if you book early enough, and I think the dearest trip I have booked was about $69. These buses have a clientèle often from the lower echelons of society economically, and they're onboard for many tedious hours longer than on a plane. Yet in all the many trips I have made around the country in these coaches I have never yet seen anyone swearing at the driver or other passengers, I have never seen anyone drunk and disorderly, and never seen anyone pissing in their seats. And guess what, they don't have bars at the bus stops and they don't serve alcohol onboard.

As most here know, I enjoy alcohol and have nothing against it, but I think it's bloody sad that some people feel the need to get anywhere between tipsy and trollied just because they are flying somewhere. If that is what they need to overcome a fear of flying they need to take the bus. Alcohol on flights and in airports isn't needed.

[jonesy]

Intersting comments....after about a year and a half of FIFO, flying to work every week, we went on a flight to Bali for holidays. Geez, it was noisy! People chatting, kids screaming grrr....couldnt wait to get back on my charter flight every Wednesday where NOBODY says a word for the whole flight - ahh bliss!

Mind you, theres a fair share of bogans over here boozing it up before heading to Asian destinations and causing strife-but paying the consequences for it! Good job I say.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Sept 30, 2014 9:33:34 GMT 12 Darren Masters said:

I don't know about these figures. I tell you, we get one dickhead most flights. I don't know what happens it is like magic. The door closes and we take off and somebody can become and instant dickhead. With all the training, constant checks,testing and re-training we get life is too short to put up with crap from passengers. Sure, when there is a legitimate reason and someone is venting, fair call. There is a huge difference between that though and being a general tool. In 8 yrs of flying the other day I saw something that I would never have imagined. A lady relieving herself in the cabin in her seat in a sandcastle bucket. Ah yep.

• 13 Weirdest Things People do on Airplanes

[Darren Masters]

Oct 12, 2014 16:19:36 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

Sept 30, 2014 9:33:34 GMT 12 Darren Masters said:

I don't know about these figures. I tell you, we get one dickhead most flights. I don't know what happens it is like magic. The door closes and we take off and somebody can become and instant dickhead. With all the training, constant checks,testing and re-training we get life is too short to put up with crap from passengers. Sure, when there is a legitimate reason and someone is venting, fair call. There is a huge difference between that though and being a general tool. In 8 yrs of flying the other day I saw something that I would never have imagined. A lady relieving herself in the cabin in her seat in a sandcastle bucket. Ah yep.

• 13 Weirdest Things People do on Airplanes

Ha ha. I liked that one so much I put it on my Face Book. So so true those 13 things. I could think of a few others. Sad that pissing into a sandcastle bucket was not on the list!

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I get to hear a few hair-raising stories from the onboard staff of the Wairarapa passenger trains I haul for a living.

Especially weekend trains when people head over to Wairarapa for the day and over-indulge at the wineries, then make dicks of themselves on the way home.

However, I guess it's what happens on public transport all over the world. I often check in at a Facebook group where people who use CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) trains and buses upload photographs and video-clips about weird & wonderful goings on in Chicago public transport. Some of it is gross, some of it is hilariously funny, some of it is just plain entertaining.

• People of the CTA

[Darren Masters]

Oct 12, 2014 18:40:37 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

I get to hear a few hair-raising stories from the onboard staff of the Wairarapa passenger trains I haul for a living.

Especially weekend trains when people head over to Wairarapa for the day and over-indulge at the wineries, then make dicks of themselves on the way home.

However, I guess it's what happens on public transport all over the world. I often check in at a Facebook group where people who use CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) trains and buses upload photographs and video-clips about weird & wonderful goings on in Chicago public transport. Some of it is gross, some of it is hilariously funny, some of it is just plain entertaining.

• People of the CTA

Mate, you need to watch this one from about 2mins on. I can't believe this lady!

[Darren Masters]

Oct 12, 2014 18:40:37 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

I get to hear a few hair-raising stories from the onboard staff of the Wairarapa passenger trains I haul for a living.

Especially weekend trains when people head over to Wairarapa for the day and over-indulge at the wineries, then make dicks of themselves on the way home.

However, I guess it's what happens on public transport all over the world. I often check in at a Facebook group where people who use CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) trains and buses upload photographs and video-clips about weird & wonderful goings on in Chicago public transport. Some of it is gross, some of it is hilariously funny, some of it is just plain entertaining.

• People of the CTA

Here's another for you. A bit silly but entertaining...