A majority of cabin crew have witnessed passengers behaving aggressively or violently, according to a new survey. (iStock)
If airplane passengers aren’t sleeping or watching movies, then they’re probably raising hell.
That’s according to a poll conducted this week by flight-comparison Web site JetCost. A total of 398 American cabin-crew members over age 21, all of whom had been employed for at least six months, were surveyed to see what kinds of inappropriate behavior they had experienced while flying the not-so-friendly skies.
Among the most shocking findings: 67 percent of respondents had witnessed passengers being aggressive or violent to each other. Meanwhile, 10 percent of the flight crew surveyed had experienced passenger-initiated violence firsthand — and a majority reported they ended up injured.
The survey also said that 48 percent of cabin crew members had been sexually propositioned by passengers. Meanwhile, 38 percent of the research pool had been insulted by passengers.
These findings come one week after an unruly passenger, 24-year-old Colby Isaac Hilleary of Texas, allegedly socked a flight attendant in the face during an American Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Dallas.
The meltdown began when Hilleary bolted to the front of the plane shortly after takeoff, telling a flight attendant that the plane had “no pilots” and was “going the wrong way,” according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. After returning to his seat, he continued behaving in a “disruptive manner.” And, despite efforts to calm him down, Hilleary claimed “the plane has been hijacked” before jumping from his seat and punching the flight attendant — identified as “L.L.” in the court documents — in the face.
After Hilleary was subdued by other passengers and the flight attendant’s wife (who was also working the flight), the plane was diverted to Tampa, where Hilleary was arrested.
These findings resulted from a relatively small sample size of only Americans, but “air rage” is also an international problem.
A 20-year-old male passenger aboard a Malindo Air flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Dhaka, Bangladesh, stripped fully nude and watched porn on his computer before trying to hug a female flight attendant and physically attacking the head cabin-crew member, according to a report this week.
Not long before that, a psycho 47-year-old passenger aboard a Siberian Airlines flight from St. Petersburg to Novosibirsk, Russia went on a full-blown rampage — not only calling a baby a “little slut,” but also sexually assaulting a young woman and punching and kicking male passengers.