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CNN Sunday Morning

Bangor, Maine Airport Handles Air Rage

Aired May 20, 2001 - 09:13   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We've heard about it, but two more cases of air rage have hit the headlines. Britannia Airways and a British Airways trans-Atlantic flight were diverted to Bangor, Maine Friday because of unruly passengers. Air rage is nothing new, but why are flights with disruptive passengers sent to Bangor?

To answer that, we're joined on the phone by Jeff Russell; he does public relations at the airport.

Jeff, good morning.

JEFF RUSSELL, MARKETING DIRECTOR: Good morning, good morning.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's start with: Why Bangor?

RUSSELL: Well, really it's all about reputation and experience in this business. Bangor International Airport has been a major, major player in the international realm for over 30 years. And most of the world airlines are actually our clients. And when they need help, when they need assistance, they turn to us because we can deliver.

PHILLIPS: So what type of instances are we talking about? What causes the decision to be made to land that plane in your airport?

RUSSELL: Well, the majority of the landings at Bangor, Maine are due to fuel needs, mechanical needs, sick passengers. We also handle the scheduled charters flying out of Europe to the islands and to the United States.

But occasionally, as we have seen all too often as of late, we have passengers that are unable to behave themselves onboard the aircraft.

PHILLIPS: When the aircraft lands at your airport, I understand you get about $750 to $3,000 per landing. What does that money go toward? Tell me how the team acts in a situation like this; who's involved and what happens?

RUSSELL: Well, basically a good deal of the interface is actually for free, in terms of the police officers and all of that. The real money goes towards the landing fee, the fuel fees, taking care of the handling of the aircraft while it is on the ground. That's basically a technical stop for the aircraft to receive some services while it's en route, with the exception that we're also taking care of a passenger that does need to be removed from the airplane and placed in custody.

PHILLIPS: So who greets the unruly passenger once the plane lands?

RUSSELL: Well, we have on sargent who's actually about six-four, 250 pounds, and that's generally the first person onboard the airplane. It makes quite an impression...

PHILLIPS: No doubt.

RUSSELL: ... it tends to subdue the misbehaving person who, up to that point generally has had the full attention of everybody onboard the airplane with his or her antics.

PHILLIPS: Once you see it heading towards Maine, you don't -- you know what's happening.

Now, how many times a year would you say that you have these type of landings?

RUSSELL: Well, it comes and it goes in waves. Usually we get them in spates of two or three, they're usually several months apart. And often -- more often than not they seem to coincide with full moons. So for -- whatever you want to read into that, that's what happens.

PHILLIPS: So when that full moon hits -- what type of preparation do you go through once you get the call that the plane's coming in -- plane is coming in, what's next?

RUSSELL: Well, generally what happens is the captain will call. We have a direct communications link because we are a 24-seven operations center for most of the airlines that are our clients. Usually we know the captain, and they will say, hey, I've got a problem, I'm going to come in and this is what we're going to do, and it's mi casa es su casa kind of routine.

We just simply put out the notice to everybody that we're going to do something a little bit different. And we assemble the team of the law enforcement officers, we open up a secure transit lounge with shops and a place for people to get something to eat so that we can -- if we have to, we take the passengers off while we're taking care of -- after we've taken care of the incident, and before we get the flight going again.

PHILLIPS: A lesson for us all to behave ourselves. Jeff Russell, thank you so much.

RUSSELL: It's my pleasure.

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