Trouble in the skies mirrors resistance to rules on ground

Bad behavior on commercial flights is not a new phenomenon.

But now it has become a national concern.

Unruly and sometimes violent passengers have become more frequent, disrupting flights and injuring airline employees, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, longtime f light attendants and pilots.

That coincides with a pandemic-heightened contentious and politically divided society, where some people don’t merely question rules intended to safeguard themselves and the public at large, but believe they have the right to simply ignore them.

The sense of entitlement is hard to miss.

Many of the disputes erupt over requirements to wear masks in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 — whether on an airliner, in a restaurant or at a coffee shop.

Often bearing the brunt of customer anger over the rules are flight attendants, restaurant servers, store clerks and other front-line service industry employees who already are at greater risk of becoming infected by the coronavirus than other workers.

Being abusive to people who a) didn’t make the rules and b) are trying to help get you what you came for or where you’re going is beyond unfair.

Then there’s the selfish disregard for potentially endangering the health of people nearby, never mind ruining their flight or meal, by being a jerk.

It’s hard to quantify these incidents involving masks because they aren’t all reported and there’s nothing to compare them to pre-pandemic. Certainly, amplification through news reports and social media can make them seem common. The reality is, most everyone does the right thing. The vast majority of people who f ly on planes and eat at restaurants are game to follow the rules for the service they are getting.

Unfortunately, some

aren’t.

It’s unclear whether the mask requirement on a recent Southwest Airlines flight triggered the outburst that resulted in one passenger punching a flight attendant, who was bloodied in the attack and reportedly lost two teeth. A passenger on the Sacramento-to-san Diego flight, Vyvianna Quinonez, who lives in Antelope in Sacramento County, was arrested and charged with felony battery.

Another passenger stepped in between the two women to end the altercation.

San Diego resident Michelle Manner captured the attack on video. She told 10News that before things got violent, the tense interaction involved the flight attendant asking Quinonez and her family to keep their masks on. “They both did not handle this the way it should have been handled,” Manner said.

In a statement, Southwest Airlines made no mention of a mask issue.

“The passenger repeatedly ignored standard inflight instructions (tray table in upright position, seat belt, etc.) and became verbally and physically abusive upon landing,” the airline said.

Caution should always be exercised in assessing how

one incident fits into a trend, especially when some details are lacking. Nevertheless, it was another instance in which a passenger got physical with a flight attendant over safety rules.

Last week, the FAA said 2,500 incidents of unruly passengers have been reported by airlines this year, including 1,900 cases in which passengers refused to comply with the federal mask mandate that remains in place on commercial flights.

In a typical year, the transportation agency sees 100 to 150 formal cases of bad passenger behavior, according to NBC News.

Keep in mind, that increase happened while the number of people flying was down from pre-pandemic levels.

At the same time, more passengers are getting banned by airlines for bad behavior. The lists maintained by the airlines — different from the federal no-f ly list, which aims to block terrorists — had swelled to more than 3,000 as of February, data compiled by CBS News showed.

Many of the bans have occurred since the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol, rising to 2,700 in the week after Jan. 6. Rioters disrupted several flights to and from Washington.

Southwest announced late last week that Quinonez has been banned “from ever flying on Southwest Airlines

again.”

In the past, unruly passengers often received a warning or counseling. After the riot flights, the FAA vowed in January “to take strong action against any passenger who disrupts or threatens the safety of a flight, with penalties ranging from fines to jail time. No warnings!” the agency said on Twitter.

The FAA extended its “zero-tolerance policy” in March.

“I’ve been in the industry since 1992, and this is the worst ever,” Lyn Montgomery, president of the Southwest flight attendants union, told The Associated Press after the San Diego incident. “People seem to be more angry. When they’re asked to do something, compliance seems to be more difficult.”

Then there’s the potential of fuel being added to the fire. Several airlines are moving to restart alcohol service that had been suspended during the pandemic. In the wake of the San Diego incident, Southwest on Friday said it will delay the resumption of serving alcohol, which was planned to begin on some flights in June.

Everybody has had to deal with rules they disagree with or don’t think are effective. “No shirt, no shoes, no service” can be a drag near the beach if you forgot your flipflops. Speed limits can slow you down. And — just guessing here — not many people in

the United States like wearing masks.

It’s understandable that people question some pandemic safety guidelines, because they’ve changed as knowledge grew about the coronavirus. It seems likely that we didn’t need some of them in the first place (think beach, park and playground closures).

But like the mask requirements, they were established with good intentions — to protect the health and safety of the public.

Besides, they’re easy to follow and at worst are minor inconveniences. That’s worth getting arrested? There’s no constitutional right to enter a business and not follow their rules.

Mask mandates are being relaxed and sooner or later will disappear.

In the meantime, there’s a simple solution to all of this: If you don’t want to wear a mask or follow safety guidelines, don’t fly, and eat at home.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to Glenn Kelman, (@glennkelman), CEO of real estate brokerage company Redfin.

“It has been hard to convey, through anecdotes or data, how bizarre the U.S. housing market has become. For example, a Bethesda, Maryland homebuyer working with @Redfin included in her written offer a pledge to name her first-born child after the seller. She lost.”

michael.smolens@ sduniontribune.com