Classic case of air rage on a Lufthansa plane from Frankfurt to JFK last August. The American woman was pacing around the cabin about two hours into the flight. She was walking a complete circuit around the plane and going through economy into business class. After about five trips through business class the FA told her she was not allowed to walk through the business class section. She started on a rant and said if she could not keep walking she would have a fit. The FA blocked her way and the woman began screaming at the top of her lungs. She screamed for about 15 minutes, the FAs kept her cornered in the space between the toilets. She began throwing her body around the cabin and beating on the walls. Doctors were paged. They dealt with her for a good 90 minutes before the situation settled.

I was hoping we would stop in Iceland and drop her off.

We got to JFK and 4 cops picked her up.

About two years ago on a weeknight I arrived at DFW on the last Continental (IAH-DFW) flight circa 10:00pm. Full plane and since it was a weeknight most passengers were tired from a long day's work.
As I leave I heard a commotion in the middle of the plane. Apparently someone had taken their case out of the overhead bin and it had fallen on another passenger. Shoving match ensued. Both pax were hauled off by FA to security.
Wrong places for shoving matches therefore include in an airplane!

Lotsa pax are shutheads and arseholes! We see that all the time.

But consider this: Most airplane seats were designed in the early 1950's when we all, as an average, were an inch shorter and weighed thirty pounds less. Since then, the seats haven't gotten any narrower (still usually six across -- at least Airbus adds about an inch per pax) but they've sure gotten closer together (pitch -- distance between seats -- has been decreased several inches!).

And then add this: these planes were designed to fly full maybe twenty days a year. Typical airline occupancies were 60% or so then, compared to 75-80% today. This means that except for Monday morning and the day before Thanksgiving, those middle seats were empty.

Computer yield management software now sells those last few seats that were our haven of sanity, the empty middle seat. Coach is now usually a torture sideways as well as footwise.

Most of us still keep our cool. Many air rage nuts are in first class, and drank too much. But the reality of torture in coach has certainly been a burden put on passengers -- and when we're delayed for hours or made to listen to multiple squalling infants or had our bodies imposed on by a smelly, inconsiderate seatmate, it's easy to understand why people are, er, less than perfectly polite.

No wonder rich folks and corporate execs are deserting more and more to private semi-charters and part-ownership deals.

Welcome to Air Greyhound. Leave the flying to us.

Just MO.

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.

Several years ago I worked at CO. I went to the daily operations meetings. In the almost 2years I attended there were very few incidents.
The two that stand out in my memory.
During the strike a FA paid for her tkt from LAX - HNl. When they were exactly 1/2 way she went to the FC lav, disrobed, entered the FC cabing and squatted and pooped in the middle of First Class. (as you can imagine a few vouchers were given out that day.)
The second one - PAX stood up in coach - read a few verses from his Bible then proceeded to charge the cockpit... it took several of the crew to restrain him.
The funny thing was- a few weeks later I had lunch with a friend who was on the flight. In fact she was the row behind him.
She said, the first clue was when he picked up his meal and walked back to the lav and locked himself in to eat. ha ha.
All in all - I agree with most postings. The news will blow a few incidents out of proportion.
Frank

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TANSTASFL - but if you work it right, FF miles comes pretty close.

The thing that really makes me mad is when someone reclines their seat all the way back. I get upset and just kick the seatback as often as I think I can get away with it. I also make a point of getting up a few times to go to the bathroom or get something out of the overhead. I would never do enough to come to blows over it.

Yesterday on my flight the person in front of me reclined his seatback and I noticed he was looking at me between the seats as he did it and saying something. I just shot him a look and then realized what he was saying. He was saying "Sir, do you mind if I recline my seat a little?". Needless to say, I felt stupid and said I didn't mind at all. Sometimes, when you expect all people to be jerks, you wind up being the jerk.

Scrog wrote:
The thing that really makes me mad is when someone reclines their seat all the way back. I get upset and just kick the seatback as often as I think I can get away with it.

Gee, what a nice adult response to kick someone's seatback just because they decide to recline it. I didn't know I needed to ask your permission.

Last year when flying from LAX-ATL on UA (their only daily nonstop), I was in 1C. About 3/4 of the way through the flight, I reclined my seatback only to have the guy in 2C push it back up. After a loud shouting match, the captain had to come out and tell the jerk in 2C to give it a rest. While you may not like it, I do have the right to recline my seat. I make an attempt to do it slowly, and often do it in 'stages' to get the person behind me used to the idea of it.

People like Scrogg are pathetic.

Do you know Scrog? He doesn't like to be reclined into. Neither do I. I will not start calling you names because we disagree. I will recline my seat sometimes depending on conditions and length of flight. Who needs to recline on a forty minute flight in coach with no seat pitch? You have a Right to Recline. I have a right to use my laptop, I must because they gave me a power plug for it. I have a right to eat, I must they gave me a seat tray. Sometimes our rights, a term I find overused conflict with others rights. Name calling does not add to the discussion.

Dallasflyer, if someone asked me what air rage was, I would say that the charming little exchange which you properly admonished is an example of where that starts.

I have witnessed Air Rage. It endangers the aircraft, the crew, and us. It starts ver often from fear and is exacerbated by alchohol and nicotine withdrawl. It can be kicked in by everyone demanding their "rights" and having no tolerance for others. I have watched businessmen behave abominably because they had been denied an upgrade.

To answer the point asked. It is defined as when passengers go beserk in flight for whatever reason or percieved cause. BA now carries restraiing devices, and will use them if the safety of the aircraft is jeapodised. They have not had to yet.

So far

Interesting exchange in the last 4 posts.

My own comments:

On reclining - Well, the passenger in front can, and so can I. Otherwise why would they let the things recline at the touch of a button if it requires intervention from the person behind? Having said that, yes, it is annoying when the person in front reclines fully in one sudden move.

On getting up from the seat: Here is a situation that does annoys me. Why does the guy behind have to get up pulling the seat in front? I do so by pushing away from my own seat thus not disturbing the person in front. When the person behind me gets up forcefully pulling my seat, I get ready for the comeback: when I see him coming back, without leaning my back against the seat, I keep the recline button pushed. If he comes back and tries to seat back using the back of my seat as support.... well, the situation can get a bit fun. I just react as surprised as he may be for him having pulled back my seat. The one situation where i would not mind and I understand is when the person behind is a senior citizen or somehow obviously weak person, but for a young strong person, I fail to understand why they have to yank my seat and awake me. Afterall, when flying F or B internationally the seats are so far appart that the same person would not have the choice of pulling the seat in front. Why do they do it when flying coach?

I agree that air rage is a problem and that people should be able to recline. I also should be able to use a laptop and if the person in front fully reclines in coach or first on domestic AA then the laptop may not fit on the tray reasonably.

My biggest concern was that when confronted with a post that was not agreeable a FTer attacked the poster personally. We can argue air rage, which I to have seen in a more minor form. We can talk about reclining seats and all our rights without attacking each other and name calling, especially when it seemed to me to be completely unprovoked.

If I am mistaken they I apolligize to any and all effected.

I have made it a habit to politely ask the person behind me if they objected to my reclining of my seat, and they are almost always thankful. I have yet for someone to say NO!! to me :eek: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif. I don't know what I'll do with myself if that ever happens. However, I did have only one (out of maybe 100 flights) say just a little bit. A little bit consented into all the way (no smarta$$ comments please http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) back when she realized that the seat pitch was more than average on this particular aircraft. She was also thankful. Another was so thankful, he offered his 1st class meal which I didn't take because I had my own lunch. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif I don't get mad when the person in front of me reclines their seat. The function is there for a reason, and I have no right to cuss, shout, kick the seat, make a complete idiot of myself, etc. over something so **** ridiculous. If someone does, I might think of them as a security hazard and report that person to the lead FA in charge as such.

Erik.

I'm no medical expert, but probably (maybe) because he has a spinal condition or knee injury that prevents him/her from getting up from a seat using the full support of the body parts without some kind of pulling support. You might see a certain pull device in a hospital room attached to the ceiling that the patient grabs when moving around in his/her bed. This is a good question that I might post in another forum for medical questions.

Erik.

That would be a valid reason, but it happens too often for me to believe that such is the reason for so many people doing it.

Totally agree that this happens too often, even flying in C class (how the pax behind me manages to *still* grab my seat when getting up in C class is beyond me). I would say that many pax in Y grab the seat in front of them when getting up. Why? I don't know. Unless the pax does have some sort of physical ailment as mentoned above, I see no reason for it - I think it's just lack of courtesy.

Only near air rage experience in years of flying was MIA-CDG on Pan Am (continuing service to FRA and TLV). The pax in the row in front of us insisted she had reserved the seat next to her (Y class 747) and made a big stink when a young German couple arrived to settle into their assigned seats (thus depriving RagePax her "reserved" empty seat).

She was very agressive, disruptive and rude; she started to make derogatory comments about Germans and Germany ... what fun.

The purser arrived and very sweetly asked RagePax for her second boarding pass ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ). Unable to produce one, the purser told RagePax to sit back and enjoy the completely sold out flight and that the next time she wanted an empty seat next to her she should buy one or fly in a different class of service.

RagePax was still very agitated as we took off and the insults continued. The German couple kept their cool but were understandably disturbed. At cruising altitude, RagePax started rocking violently in her reclined seat which disturbed my traveling companion seated directly behind her. Being French and not mastering English all that well, he gave her a bit of a tongue lashing in french which actually calmed her down. We then endured three hours of the worst turbulence I have ever experienced (all FAs strapped in, people throwing up, etc) - RagePax was so frightened she luckily just shut up.

Pan Am shut down shortly thereafter. I think this is one of the worst flights I've ever had.

i've said this on other threads, but will repeat. i would like to see the a/l's show a pax courtesy video along w/ the safety stuff. it should contain items like 'pls don't recline seat during meals' pls recline seat slowly' pls don't grab seat back in front of you to get up' pls don't put knees against seat back in front of you shake it' etc etc etc.