Airlines plan clampdown on boozed-up drinkers who cause mayhem in mid-air

A passenger drinks beer in the plane. Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority show that “air rage” incidents on British airlines have quadrupled over a three-year period. PHOTO | AGENCIES

What you need to know:

  • Cleared through Customs and Immigration, they go to the airport bar and start drinking pints of beer at 6 am.
  • Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority show that “air rage” incidents on British airlines have quadrupled over a three-year period.
  • It is against the law to be drunk on an airplane and to disobey instructions given by the captain, and the head of one airline has suggested that trouble-makers should be banned by all airlines.

They are all pals taking an early-morning flight from, let us say, London to Spain for a stag party. Cleared through Customs and Immigration, they go to the airport bar and start drinking pints of beer at 6 am. More alcohol is ordered once in flight and that’s when the trouble starts.

Drunken passengers have been known to fight with each other or with other travellers, abuse the airline staff, light up cigarettes and, in one terrifying incident, try to open the plane door.

Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority show that “air rage” incidents on British airlines have quadrupled over a three-year period. In 2015 there were 386 dangerous incidents, compared with just 85 in 2013. Alcohol or drugs are involved in many cases.

An airline steward, writing anonymously, said: “A lot of the time, people don’t realise they are on board an aircraft. They think they are in a club or a bar. They behave like animals. It’s getting to the point where stewards are having to be bouncers.”

In serious cases, a plane will be diverted and the offending passengers removed, often charged and locked up until they are sober. In one case, it took four policemen to remove a passenger, who was described as “uncontrollable”.

It is against the law to be drunk on an airplane and to disobey instructions given by the captain, and the head of one airline has suggested that trouble-makers should be banned by all airlines.

Budget airline Jet 2 has already this year blacklisted 22 people for life and its managing director, Phil Ward, is urging the creation of a centralised database so that anyone punished by a single airline could be barred across the industry.

BLOODIED FOREARM

More than 250 million passengers pass through UK airports every year, with close to two million flights, so the number of incidents is relatively small. But the latest figures leave no room for doubt that passenger behaviour is getting worse.

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A word of advice for those reaching a certain age: When walking down a flight of steps, do not take your eyes off your feet. Or like me, you may take a header down the next half-dozen steps and wind up with a bloodied forearm, a knackered knee and ribs of such soreness that you yelp, grunt and shriek with every movement.

The medics smile and shake their heads. This is one condition they can do nothing about, they say happily, just recommend creams from the chemist or maybe prescribe stronger pain-killers.

What I was doing while walking down the train station staircase was putting a credit card away in my wallet instead of watching where I was treading. Maybe it’s right what women say: Men can’t multi-task.

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It’s got to be one of the nastiest offences. A couple are in an intimate relationship and private sexual images are taken. But then they fall out and one party puts the videos or photos online to humiliate or embarrass his or her erstwhile partner.

It’s known as revenge porn.

New figures from the Crown Prosecution Service say that during 2015-16 ending last March, more than 206 people were prosecuted for publishing such images without consent.

It became an offence to share private sexual photographs or films without the subject’s consent in April 2015, so no earlier figures are available, but police officers describe revenge porn as “a growing trend.”

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It is one of the great scourges of modern life — fly-tipping, where people dump large items of garbage in isolated areas or pay fly-tippers to do it for them.

Council tax covers the removal of routine rubbish. But if you want the council to dispose of large items, you have to pay about £25 (Sh3,300) a time. Many people are not ready to do this, so they sneak off to quiet areas or dump stuff at night.

Regularly fly-tipped are items such as mattresses, fridges, microwave ovens, builders’ rubble, garden waste, coffins (empty) and in one case a box of live turtles (full).

But the councils are fighting back. Hidden cameras at likely spots have netted a decent bag of offenders and good results have come from outraged neighbours who go online and name names. Schoolchildren make large paper eyes which they pin to trees so potential dumpers will feel they are being watched?

Many councils send officers to inspect the garbage. Frequently they find envelopes or notepaper with addresses and telephone numbers, usually belonging to the guilty dumper.

The law now allows quite large fines (£400, Sh52,800) for quite small amounts of rubbish, so the £25 which the offender dodged begins to look like small potatoes.

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Talking of falling down … it is winter and a lady slips in the snow. A gentleman hurries to assist her. “Was it the ice?” he asks. “No, I think it was the Scotch,” she replies.