Stamping Out ‘Air Rage’

Some of the world’s major airlines have begun to respond to perilous fits of “air rage” with strong action. It’s about time. This is road rage at 33,000 feet, with a captive audience hurtling through the sky in a thin metal cylinder.

It’s fair to say that the perpetrators are as dangerous in some respects as any would-be skyjacker. These air-rage bozos deserve commensurate treatment, for what they cause frequently is similar: extreme violence, plus panic among the passengers. Examples: such stunts as drunken, berserk attempts to pry open emergency exit doors in flight and efforts to break into airliner cockpits.

Cathay Pacific has the right idea. The carrier has banned international rock stars Liam and Noel Gallagher for life for drunken and rowdy behavior on a Hong Kong-to-Australia flight last May. Japan Air Lines flight crews are allowed to tie up unruly passengers for the duration of a flight.

British Airways now warns misbehaving passengers with a soccer-style yellow card. The next card, a red one, means that the police will be waiting with arrest warrants when the plane lands. And if a British Airways pilot has sufficient cause, he may land the plane and leave a troublemaker stranded at that airfield.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the Justice Department and the FBI have also begun to take these incidents more seriously. Convictions for assaults or other incidents that threaten flight safety can carry sanctions of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Obviously, such punishments will be extremely rare, but courts around the world are taking strong action. Just this month, a woman passenger who got into a fight with cabin crew members was sentenced to 15 months in jail. A teenager who flew into a rage on a jet filled with children got 18 months in jail.

Other airlines and prosecutors should follow suit. Not-so-friendly skies are no place to be, and airline personnel deserve maximum authority to make flights safe.