Incidents of Air Rage and Unruly Behavior on Flights Triple Since 2019

Incidents of air rage, fights and disruptive behavior on flights tripled in 2022 according to UK airlines.

Figures shared with Sky News, reveal that 1,028 cases of disruptive behavior and sexual assault were reported by airline staff last year.

In 2019, the last year for data before the COVID outbreak, 373 such incidents were recorded by airlines.

These concerning new figures, coupled with the general rise in alarming behavior on planes being filmed on social media, has led to politicians in the UK considering a new law to protect passengers and staff.

Conservative Member of Parliament Gareth Johnson will raise the issue in the House of Commons on May 24, 2023.

“This bill aims to ensure that violent people who cause mayhem on planes are actually banned from flying for a specific period of time by a court,” Johnson has said. “The difficulty that we have currently is that someone can be violent on a particular operator’s plane and then that operator cannot pass that information on to another operator. So that person can just go and fly with a different operator.”

Incidents in 2022 that gained wide-spread attention on social media included an inebriated man travelling from Luton to Lithuania who needed to be restrained by seven people due to his unruly behavior.