US: Flight attendants could get Tasers, says union boss

The discussion about issuing Tasers to flight attendants needs to start back up, according to a US union boss. Speaking a recent case where a United Airlines passenger assaulted a flight attendant and threatened to “kill every man on this plane”, the head of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) union, Sara Nelson, told CNN they were considering how to best help airline crew. “There has been a lot of discussion about whether flight attendants should have Tasers. I think we need to look at that discussion again,” Nelson said. “And flight attendants need to be given the training we were supposed to have right after 9/11, which is crew member self-defence training.” Almost 50,000 flight attendants across 19 different airlines are represented by AFA-CWA. Nelson also supported the idea of a national banned passenger list. Individual airlines have lists of passengers who are prohibited from flying, however, this is not shared between airlines. This means a dangerous passenger could take their unruly behaviour to another carrier if they are banned. Nelson said staffing cuts across airlines have also made flight attendants’ jobs harder.<br/>