Calculating Air Rage Trends Not Possible with FAA, TSA Data

Air Safety Week,  April 10, 2006  

Tags: FAA, Transportation Security Administration

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Contrary to media reports from last week, it's unlikely that data collected by federal transportation agencies can be used to discern year-to-year trends in air rage incidents.

But citing such data, USA Today concluded on April 3 that these incidents reached a 10-year high in 2004.

Yet, both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) -- which intercepts unruly passengers at its airport checkpoints -- and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) -- which looks into incidents aboard aircraft -- insist that their data are strictly for keeping track of cases they've acted on in some way, and cannot be used for any kind of scientific trend analysis. In fact, it seems that such a database, either inside or outside the government, simply doesn't exist.

Aboard aircraft, crew members decide how to handle a developing incident. If the crew member, usually a flight attendant, manages the situation well enough and the passenger calms down, it's likely the incident will never get reported. But if the incident eventually comes to the attention of the FAA, the agency can fine passengers up to $25,000 per "violation" of its regulations, which say that passengers cannot interfere with the duties of crew members. (There also may be several violations per incident, so the total fine could wind up being double or triple that amount.) Finally, for the most serious incidents, passengers are met by local police at the arrival gate, and they're referred to the FBI or other officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

So in reality, the actual numbers of incidents are "probably higher" than the case records kept by the FAA, agency spokeswoman Alison Duquette tells Air Safety Week. "I've always advised people that the FAA numbers are only one part of the picture. In no way does it reflect the total picture of what's happening in the system."

Like the FAA, TSA tracks the "raw numbers" of incidents at its checkpoints. Also like the FAA, these numbers are not very suitable for doing a scientific trend analysis, agency spokeswoman Amy Kudwa tells Air Safety Week. What the TSA numbers show is that, since TSA's inception in early 2002, the agency has taken some kind of administrative action -- like a warning letter -- in only 302 cases. For 62 of those 302 cases, the behavior was disruptive enough to bring a fine. To put these numbers in perspective, Kudwa adds that there are about 2 million travelers passing through TSA's checkpoints every day.

Last week it was also reported that neither the FAA or the TSA could say why some travelers behave badly, and Air Safety Week confirmed those statements. Given the limitations of their data, the hesitation of offering official explanations is understandable.

However, there are a couple of academics who believe they not only know why such incidents often occur, but how to prevent them. One is Joyce Hunter of St. Xavier University in Chicago, who interviewed members of the traveling public and aviation employees at airports in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., for research paper she is presenting at the late-May Air Transport Research Society conference in Nagoya, Japan. The three biggest factors leading to air rage, she finds, are alcohol, anger, and anxiety.

Of those three, alcohol is by far the largest, figuring in about nine out of every 10 cases, Hunter says. Some passengers are already inebriated when they get to the airport. Others get worse after they order a few martinis from the in-flight drink service.

Hunter, who worked in Delta's marketing department for 34 years, says the airlines' marketing is a large part of the problem. Alcohol has been part of the "airline culture" for so many years, that travelers "look for the whole alcohol beverage scenario." Delta, at least, has an official who handles issues related to passengers' disruptive behavior.

While its doubtful that airlines will ever ban alcohol aboard their flights, their personnel could be better trained to recognize the behavioral signs that a problem could develop. Hunter also is in favor of having a database of passengers who have already been disruptive, much as a couple of carriers based in Asia have done.

As things stand now, airlines "don't really want to talk" about the issue, she adds. Most of them hope the problem will simply disappear. When she was beginning her research, Hunter tells Air Safety Week that she sent written requests to all the carriers for permission to interview their passengers while they wait in the gate areas. None of the carriers responded. U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) sent a letter on Hunter's behalf to the Department of Homeland Security back when Tom Ridge was still in charge, but there was no response. So Hunter eventually proceeded on her own, getting past security into the gate areas, finding people to ask about ten to 15 questions, and offering them coffee and sandwiches in exchange for their time and allowing them to see the survey results.