Why bad airline passengers are good for you

Unruly passenger incidents took off last year, according to a recently released report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade group. It counted 10,854 passenger disruptions worldwide, or one incident for every 1,205 flights. That’s an increase from the 9,316 incidents, which was one incident for every 1,282 flights, reported in 2014.

Most incidents involved verbal abuse, failure to follow crew instructions and “other forms of antisocial behavior,” according to the trade group.

That sounds like terrible news, but it isn’t. The worse things get at 36,000 feet — and the IATA report was only a hint of what’s truly happening — the closer we all come to saying: “Enough!” And we have to get to that point soon if we’re ever going to make air travel better for everyone, not just the chosen few who are luxuriating in the lie-flat seats.

To get an idea of how bad air travel is, I recommend you board a plane between now and the end

of this year. And be sure to fly in economy. You’ll see all sorts of unacceptable behavior shamelessly on display, almost none of which is reported by an airline.

There’s no shortage of examples. Sydney Pearl, author of Diary of a Pissed-Off Flight

Attendant, says her latest shock came on a trans-Atlantic flight, where the passenger behind her decided to stretch her legs directly into her personal space.

“Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed a bare and dirty foot slowly sneaking its way onto my armrest,” she recalls. “I was appalled to say the least.”

It’s a zoo up there, frequent traveler and New York PR professional Richard Laermer says.

“They put their feet up, watch really inappropriate clips on their laptops and talk to you as if you’re their sports-watching buddy,” he says.

What’s turning us into animals? That’s a fine question.

It’s a combination of several factors, according to psychiatrist Carole Lieberman. Passengers are putting their lives in the hands of strangers and often feel out of control. They’re worried about a possible terrorist attack. Others are claustrophobic or afraid of flying, so (you guessed it) they self-medicate.

“To cope with fear of flying and other anxieties, many passengers try to calm or anesthetize themselves with alcohol,” she says. “Alcohol encourages bad behavior.”

Hasn’t this been a problem since the beginning? Yes, says Bob Ross, national president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. “But today, planes are more crowded, which provides more opportunity for conflict,” he says.

Passengers are much more stressed out, adds Michael Brein, a psychologist who specializes in travel issues.

“It’s all the restrictions, caveats and pressures due to safety, control and reduced personal space,” he says. “All these factors combine to produce psychological exploding points.”

The recent epidemic of inflight incidents, big and small, is the reason why creating minimum legroom standards is so important, explains Margaret King, director of the Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis, a Philadelphia think tank.

“It’s a bad idea for airline engineers to think of passengers as sacks of mail with no personal space needs,” she says.

Experts such as King are surprised there aren’t more violent or disruptive passenger incidents. But that’s the thing: No one knows how many of these inflight incidents happen. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doesn’t require flight attendants to report them. For the first half of the year, the FAA reported 31 in-flight incidents.