There’s something about flying that can make some folks act in crazy ways, screaming at the check-in counter staff, or even attacking flight attendants. In fact, according to the flight attendants union, each year there are several thousand instances of “air rage,” including several hundred cases of physical abuse. Alcohol (which loosens inhibitions) and caffeine
(which raises the blood pressure) often contribute to the problem, but the underlying condition that breeds this rage is likely the overwhelming feeling of not being in control.
Perhaps the feeling starts in the car, on the way to the airport, as the traffic slows to a crawl
and you begin to wonder if you’ll arrive in time for your flight. Perhaps you feel a tightening in your stomach while waiting in the surprisingly long check-in line, or the security line, or the boarding line—speculating about everything from turbulence to terrorists. Perhaps your flight has been delayed or canceled, and you miss your connection or business meeting. Perhaps your flight is so full that you and your spouse can’t sit next to each other, or you’re stuck in a middle seat at the back of the airplane across from the toilet.
True, when you’re flying you’re definitely not in control. Worse, the experience of flying is nowhere near as pleasant as it used to be, or as it appears to be in television ads. In this age of overbooked flights and tightened security—when every step from parking your car to
finding your luggage at the end of the flight can be a struggle—it’s almost understandable that people occasionally snap.
In the space age, man will be able to go around the
world in two hours — one
hour for flying and one hour to get to the airport.
—Neil McElroy,
former U.S. secretary of defense
I once saw a flight
attendant charging down the aisle looking so
distressed I was sure we were all goners, but it turned out that somebody was trying to pay for a beer with a $50 bill.
— Layne Ridley, WHITE KNUCKLES
You define a good flight by
negatives: you didn ’ t get
hijacked, you didn ’ t crash,
you didn ’ t throw up, you
weren ’ t late, you weren ’ t
nauseated by the food. So you ’ re grateful.
— Paul Theroux, Novelist and travel writer
Sometimes people become belligerent when they are told that they cannot use their cell phones during the flight, or when a flight attendant refuses to serve them alcohol (flight
attendants cannot legally give alcohol to someone who is already obviously drunk). Passengers have slapped and even punched crew members; on one occasion, a passenger ended up
breaking the neck of a gate agent. Fortunately, these instances are rare, but they are proof that air rage has become a reality.
Here are a few ways to reduce your stress (and that of those around you) with a few precautions:
● Get to the airport far earlier than you need to. This way, you can breathe easy through bad traffic or long lines at the airport, and you can always read a book or explore the airport if you have extra time.
● Remember that some airlines will cancel your reservation if you don’t check in within ten or twenty minutes of the flight.
● Be as pleasant as you can to the airline staff, especially if you want them to be pleasant to you.
● Never physically interfere with a flight attendant; in the United States, it’s a federal crime, punishable by up to twenty years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
● Avoid alcohol before or during the flight.
● If you want to chat with the stranger next to you, be sensitive that he or she might not want to talk (grunting or offering monosyllabic answers to your questions is a good indicator). Or if your seatmate wants to talk and you don’t, just be honest and say, “I’m sorry, but I rarely get any quiet time, and I’m not much in the mood for talking.” (Or lie and say you work for a tax collection service like the IRS; that usually works.)
If God had really intended
men to fly, He ’ d make it
easier to get to the airport.
— Humorist George Winters
(Courtesy of Airbus Industrie)
That is the trouble with flying: We always have to return to airports. Think
of how much fun flying would
be if we didn ’ t have to
return to airports.
— Henry Mintzberg, WHY I HATE FLYING
Ever since 1912, when Calbraith Perry Rogers was killed after a seagull flew into his airplane’s motor, aviators have been keenly aware that birds and airplanes in flight don’t mix. Today, as some bird populations such as the non-migratory Canada geese are on the rise, and there are more airplanes flying than ever, trying to keep the two apart is getting harder. The “bird
strike” problem is greatest when airplanes are taking off and landing, so airports are using a wide variety of techniques to keep birds away, including nonlethal chemical repellents,
audiotapes simulating birds in distress, trained falcons, “hot foot” (a sticky chemical that irritates birds’ feet), “Nixalite” (a roll of spikes that stops birds from landing), floating plastic balls that cover ponds, and even border collies trained to herd birds. On occasion, airports simply send someone out to shoot the birds.