- In the past year, there have been 1,973 reports of unruly passengers, per the FAA.
- This past summer, air travel became a source of frustration as flight delays and cancellations went through the roof.
- Besides misconduct aimed at flight attendants, overall airline behavior has been found to be getting worse.
Air travel is increasingly becoming a place for misconduct and poor behavior.
An American Airlines passenger is facing federal charges for physically assaulting a flight attendant on a flight last week from San José del Cabo, Mexico, to Los Angeles. The unruly passenger was caught on video running up behind the flight attendant before punching them in the back of the head. American Airlines said “acts of violence against our team members are not tolerated” and banned the assaulter from ever flying with the airline again.
In the past year, there have been 1,973 reports of unruly passengers and 680 investigations, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Just two years ago, in 2020, there were 183.
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More bad behavior on flights
This incident is hardly isolated.
“Flight Attendants are signing up for crew member self-defense training at rates higher than after 9/11,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told USA TODAY. “The frequency of disruptive and violent…
