Booze-fuelled air rage: Should alcohol be banned on planes?
Two recent inflight brawls – both on Ryanair flights from Edinburgh to Tenerife – have drawn renewed attention to the problems of drink-fuelled air rage. On the first occasion, Spanish police arrested the perpetrators on arrival in the Canary Islands. On the second, the plane from Scotland’s capital was diverted to Porto in Portugal for the troublesome passengers to be offloaded.
Passengers on these and many other flights have spoken out about their scary ordeal as violence erupted in a confined environment.
“Air rage” threatens the safety of passengers and crew. The European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) says: “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.”
Many of these incidents are fuelled by excess alcohol. Drunkenness and disruption draw the crew away from their normal safety duties. They also cause a
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