When a bar serves enough alcohol to people that they become drunk and disorderly, it is not only the drunk and disorderly person who is liable to arrest but also the bar which is fined and can potentially be in trouble. It is a sad fact that drunkenness is both more common and more socially acceptable (if not leniently smiled at) in the UK than in many other countries, and as a result, British airlines are "statistically" at greater risk of facing passengers who either are unacceptably drunk or are trying to get unacceptably drunk onboard. More than once, I have been on BA flights where I saw passengers who made me feel uncomfortable because of their level of drunkenness, and for whom my gut feeling was that they should have never been allowed to board. I once mentioned it formally and received absolutely no answer (and there was indeed no major incident, just loud and inappropriate behaviour), so I sort of gave up afterwards. BA (rightly) boast a zero tolerance policy when it comes to air rage or drunken behaviour in principle, but my feeling is that the implementation leaves quite a lot to be desired. I first and foremost blame the passengers for being so irresponsible, but I really do think that the airline also has a share of responsibility in this and other regular incidents of the same form.