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CNN Live At Daybreak

Airlines Plead for End to Air Rage

Aired July 06, 2001 - 08:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Stop the madness: That is the plea of airline workers around the world. Flight attendants released their air rage report card today. And they say carriers and the government are not doing enough to prevent passenger rage.

Also today, ground workers hold their second annual day of action against abuse.

CNN's Brian Cabell provides some illustration of the growing problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a scene that passengers and flight crews dread confronting while they are 30,000 feet in the air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please help me. Why? I didn't do nothing wrong. Why don't you tell them I didn't do nothing wrong?

CABELL: The crew determined that two sisters flying from Detroit to China earlier this year had gotten out of control. The pilot decided to turn the plane around.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: I don't think, in any shape or form, any of us are happy over this situation that we're in right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am not doing nothing wrong!

CABELL: The two sisters were arrested and charged with interfering with a flight crew. They pled innocent and are awaiting trial.

The FAA reports that crews handle a case like this, unruly passengers or air rage, about once a day. And that's just reported incidents. The most celebrated recent case: REM band member Peter Buck, who was arrested on various charges after a flight from Seattle to London. He has yet to enter a plea on the charges.

Flight attendant Stacy Fletcher remembers vividly her encounter with a belligerent passenger.

STACY FLETCHER, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Clearly, there was no reasoning with him, you know. I kept telling him, "You need to sit down. You'll be arrested. The police are going to meet the flight."

And he didn't care. He just was, "I'm going to kill you" and swinging. And I finally thought: Well, if you're swinging at me, I'm swinging back.

CABELL: But it's not just flight crews who face the ire of passengers. Ground crews have their own problems: frustrated passengers whose luggage is lost.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I get my baggage, please, from your company? You have to find my baggage.

CABELL: Or passengers who are told they can't carry on their luggage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a little too big, sir. I can carry it down myself. It will be on the plane with you.

CABELL: Those are the routine frustrations -- something more serious: the case of passenger John Davis, who was charged with attacking a ticket agent during a long wait for a flight. He pled self-defense and was acquitted earlier this year.

The confrontations, major and minor, are the result of congestion, delays and sometimes alcohol. Airline crews say: Don't blame them. They are just doing their jobs in sometimes trying conditions.

Brian Cabell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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