Every 3 hours the safety of a flight within the EU is threatened by passengers behaving in an unruly or disruptive manner.
At least 70% of these incidents involve some form of aggression. Once a month a flight is forced to perform an emergency landing when such situations escalate.*
The number of reported incidents in 2018 have increased by 34% compared to 2017.
These figures are worrying as they show an increasing trend. What is particularly disturbing is that these incidents have a direct impact on both the safety of crew and passengers.
Even though the number of unruly passengers is small considering the total number of people flying, the impact of their actions can have a disproportionate effect both on the smooth operation of the flight and more importantly on its safety.
Intoxicated passengers may not be able to follow safety instructions when needed and aggressive behaviour distracts the crew from their duties. Physical violence can be a traumatic experience for those involved and also reduces the ability of the crew to respond in case of an emergency.
Any kind of unruly or disruptive behaviour whether related to intoxication, aggression or other factors introduces an unnecessary risk to the normal operation of a flight. This is why we believe that we need to work together in reducing these incidents. We are joining forces with organisations across the aviation industry and together we are raising awareness to address the topic that has a direct impact on the safety of both passengers and crew.
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* Occurrences involving Unruly Passengers from the European Central Repository that were reported by operators from the EASA Member States in accordance with the definitions in Regulation (EU) 376/2014.
