On Dec. 5, a Finnish passenger who assaulted several crew members on a Malev Hungarian airliner died after he was strapped to his seat and a doctor on board injected him with tranquilizers. An autopsy indicated he died from a mixture of the tranquilizer and another drug or alcohol. In other recent incidents, flight attendant Fiona Weir was beaten over the head with a broken vodka bottle on a flight to Spain. British pop star Ian Brown was jailed for threatening to cut off a crew member's hand. She went to jail for 15 months.
American passengers are just as bad.
This problem continues to grow and escalate. The cases are more egregious. We have flight attendants who have required hospitalization, who can't return to work. A good start might be training flight attendants to recognize the telltale signs of in-flight rage, says Los Angeles psychologist William Glasser. Once the rage starts, everything gets out of control.