As much as just about everyone loves cheap traveloptions, such as cheapairplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages, mostpassengers despair when faced with unruly fellow travelers.
There is a growing trend of abusive passenger behavior onplanes as evidenced by fighting soccer fans, fashion models screamingobscenities, and a French film star who recently relieved himself in a gangway.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) hopes toreach an agreement on the rights of crews and captains to do whatever isnecessary to subdue offenders at a conference in Montreal in March.
Unruly passenger behavior is increasing according to IATA,and has become a problem that airline crews and other travelers facedaily. One such example cited as typicalwas a woman passenger who fought cabin crew after throwing liquor at them. This passenger heaped abuse on stewards andfellow passengers throughout an overnight flight from Europe to Thailand.
Disruptive passenger behavior has only been documented andrecorded since 2007. Since then therehave been over 15,000 such incidents reported to IATA. It is believed that many such incidents arenever reported.
The problem is that international law has not caught upwith the forever evolving world of global air travel. Currently offenders, such as the violentwoman passenger on a Bangkok flight, face no legal consequences because policein countries where planes land say that they have no jurisdiction.
Complicating matters further is the lack of clarity in theexisting 1963 Tokyo Convention which governs such cases, leaving cabin crew andpilots unclear on how to respond.
The fear is that airline personnel can be sued for assaultif they restrain a violent passenger.
Other incidents in the air in 2013 include a violent attackon a flight attendant in China, an American viewing pornography on hiscomputer, and a South African couple engaging in sex in first class.
A Russian woman drank liquid soap and tried to bite aflight attendant after being refused alcohol on a flight from Los Angeles toLondon. On another flight a man grabbedwine from a beverage cart and then locked himself in a toilet to drink it.
IATA had 240 airline members, which include almost all ofthe worlds passenger airlines. Membershave been encouraged to back their crews and do whatever possible to ensurethat badly behaved passengers are taken to court.
Even with the best intentions airlines often are able toget authorities to act given the absence of defined legislation. The 1963 Tokyo convention was held primarily todeal with hijacks not misbehaving travelers.
IATAs objective for the March conference is for agreementto be reached on a new convention that will clearly spell out the right of anairliners captain to do what he believes is necessary to control misbehavingpassengers.
Unfortunately the outcome of a new convention is uncertaingiven that so many governments have to agree on any new directives.
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