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DUI in the Sky
ChrisCrossings · April 19, 2001

Q: On a recent flight to Las Vegas, I noticed a gentleman a few rows ahead of me getting a bit loud and vulgar. It was clear he was drinking more than he could handle. About 30 minutes before landing, a female attendant from first class came and spoke the man. With the cabin noise it was unclear what she was exactly saying, but the look on her face made it very clear she was angry.

At some point the passenger taped her arm with a magazine, to which she replied if he hit her again she would have him arrested. She gathered up all the man's drinks and departed toward the front of the main cabin. Once the aircraft was on the ground, but still moving, a male flight attendant stood just behind the passenger. It was obvious by the phone calls the female flight attendant was calling the cops.

Sure enough, the cabin door was opened to allow two sheriffs in to take the guy away. Some floor show!

Just the odd thought: Who's responsible for the man's inebriation? If he were on the ground, the bar that served him would be liable for any accidents the man caused. Could the airline be held responsible? Was the flight attendant overreacting? The tap on the arm didn't seem to be hurtful. The plane was full, so there wasn't any other seat in which to isolate the guy, so that wasn't an option.

-- Win Dickson

A: I've long argued that airlines ought to stop serving drinks on flights. At least one-quarter of all crew interference incidents are alcohol-related, according to the Air Transport Association. But airline passengers wouldn't stand for it, insisting that it's their inalienable right to get smashed when they fly.

I'm slightly sympathetic to travelers who want to drink on the plane. Some passengers are nervous fliers, and a drink or two would calm them down. And with airline food as awful as it is, I also think a sip of Merlot might make the gruel go down easier.

But as any flight attendant knows, if you give passengers and inch, they'll take a mile. One drink becomes two, which becomes three. Next thing you know it's rowdier than a beer tent at Oktoberfest, and even the most competent cabin crew is more or less powerless to prevent passengers from arguing loudly with one another, hitting each other or at times even trying to join the Mile-High club.

You bring up an interesting question, though. Who's to blame?

Is it the airport bars that serve passengers before they board? Partially. I've interviewed airport bartenders on several occasions, and they say they'll cut off waiting passengers at two drinks. Then again, I've also been a waiting passenger, and my bartender was more interested in a big tip than making sure I boarded my flight sober. Try as hard as we might, it's impossible to prevent people from getting tanked at the airport before they fly - especially when a full quarter of our domestic flights are delayed, as the latest U.S. Department of Transportation numbers indicate.

How about the flight attendants? They're somewhat responsible, but not as much as you think. It's important to distinguish between economy class, where it's very difficult to get bombed when you're paying $4 per hit and the flight attendant comes by once for the entire flight, and first class, home of the bottomless wine glass. On one of the rare occasions I sat in first class, the passenger next to me downed several gin and tonics, and a crewmember obediently replaced his drink whenever he finished. Who can forget Gerard Finneran, the passenger who defecated on a first-class food cart on a flight to New York? He was sitting in the front of the plane.

It's the gate agents, I think, who should be responsible for preventing this DUI-in-the-sky nonsense.

Gate agents can - and often do - deny boarding to passengers based on health, mental condition and, of course, available room on the aircraft. I know what kind of pressure these airline employees are under to ensure an on-time departure (I'm related to a gate agent, and I hear the horror stories) but is it worth herding everyone onto the plane at the cost of safety? In extreme cases, such as flights to Las Vegas or other popular vacation destinations, I wouldn't rule out testing passengers for sobriety - have them walk a straight line or give them a breath test.

What's more, the Department of Transportation should exempt flights from reporting on-time departure statistics where these kinds of safety issues are concerned. This would involve modifying some of the airlines' reporting procedures, but in the end, I believe it would save lives.

Pie-in-the-sky? Maybe. But when a drunken passenger causes an airline crash, I imagine we'll be having this discussion again.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.