The FAA is warning air travelers about what it describes as a dramatic increase in unruly or dangerous behavior aboard passenger airplanes.
“It is not permissible and we will not tolerate interfering with a flight crew and the performance of their safety duties,” Stephen Dickson, the administrator of the FAA, said of the wave of incidents. “Period.”
The bad behavior appears to be taking a toll. Angela Hagedorn, a former flight attendant with Alaska Airlines,“It has been an exhausting time for all the employees who are just trying to do their job according to their company’s policies," she said. “The constant arguing and pushback from guests, it’s ridiculous."
“What we have seen on our planes is flight attendants being physically assaulted, pushed, choked,” Nelson said. “We have a passenger urinate. We had a passenger spit into the mouth of a child on board.