World: Airlines are physically restraining more drunk and unruly passengers

As the number of serious incidents involving drunk and violent travelers increases, airlines are being forced to physically restrain an increasing number of disorderly passengers, according to the IATA. Statistics released Tuesday by the industry’s main trade group show a 50 percent rise last year to 169 passengers who were forcibly confined for behavior ranging from verbal and physical abuse to life-threatening actions -- the most serious of which involved attempts to enter the cockpit. The annual tally by IATA of bad form comes as examples of extreme in-flight incidents grab headlines and flood social media. These have included the escort by fighter jets in May of an American Airlines plane to Honolulu after a passenger, who appeared to be intoxicated, attempted to breach the cockpit door. In some cases, the conflicts erupting in airplanes have hurt carriers’ own reputations. The number of incidents involving disorderly passengers has risen in recent years, with IATA saying in the past that airlines are increasingly having to navigate local laws to bring prosecutions for offenses and crews have to be trained on how to handle violence. While the total number of reported incidents last year actually fell by almost 10% to 9,837, the portion that were deemed a higher risk increased from 2015. <br/>