Air rage by crew?

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18 years 8 months

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There are plenty of stories of passengers engaging in air rage. Which is logical, because most persons on board a passenger airplane are passengers.

However, surely airplanes are not only crewed by angels?

Sometimes the pilots fly drunk on airline traffic. Sometimes you can hear of drunk flight attendants. Also some flight attendants have been caught smuggling.

I have heard that flight attendants travelling off duty have sometimes been more demanding and obnoxious than ordinary passengers. But what about air rage?

Have there been any incidents of flight attendants misbehaving on duty so as to be arrested on landing?

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24 years 2 months

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no comment!!!!!!!!!

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21 years

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A few months ago a crew of a Russian airliner were arrested for punching a passenger. I havent read any follow up story of that one though...

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20 years 10 months

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no comment!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like someone has a story to tell. :D

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24 years 2 months

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I need more than my hands to count the number of times ive seen crew behaving badly ! I also have to say no comment :diablo:

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24 years 2 months

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Sounds like someone has a story to tell. :D

I do, but it's not about me!!!! :D :D :D :D

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19 years 5 months

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Northwest has the nastiest cabin crew I've come across.

While flying to Honolulu a passenger had the bad luck to stand up while the plane was approaching the airport...about 5 minutes out...not like we were on final.

A crone of a flight attendent...(with apologies to crones everywhere :D ) ran back to the area and yelled at the poor passenger to sit down...I thought the old girl (who looked old enough to have been Lindbergh's in-flight entertainment)...was going to attack the passenger.

Northwest has the oldest-nastiest-rudest flight attendents of any airline I've flown. I'd rather fly the Atlantic in a 727....stopping five times (which I've done but that's another story) than go on Northwest.

PS..Their CEO recently wrote an all out attack on general aviation in their in-fright (sorry that's in-flight!) magazine. Another reason to dislike them

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I'd rather fly the Atlantic in a 727....stoppoing five times (which i've done but that's another story) than go on Northwest.
Well I, for one, would love to hear the story! :)

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I do, but it's not about me!!!! :D :D :D :D

We are waiting :D

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19 years 5 months

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Well I, for one, would love to hear the story! :)

It might not surprise you that it was a charter flight. Generally, the only thing worse than a charter flight is a Government chartered flight. That ensures the lowest possible bid...and the most penny-pinching ac and route.

In 1997 while I was still in the military I received orders to go to Cairo as part of a ground element supporting a C-141 unit thatw ould be there aiding with training the Egyptian Army. I was to be on the deployment commander's staff...but I soon learned rank wouldn't mean any extra favors during the flight. First, I had to go to Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska to join the rest of the troops being deployed...which were mainly from Offutt. I was looking forward to a bit of adventure, a couple of months before I spent 3 weeks at RAF Fairford as part of B-1/B-52 deployment...and it got me away from our wing commander...a generally nasty man who took an immediate dislike to me the moment we met. But I digress.
Nebraska is never a particularly nice place...but in the early winter it's terrible. Cold and rainy. I was excited about the flight to Egypt, would it be a C-17...maybe a C-5? At very worse I thought it could be an old L-1011 or well used 747 belonging to a contractor. I was shocked to find a brightly painted "Air Miami" 727-200. A nice enough plane...nice leather seats, but noway to cross the atlantic with a full passenger load.
My fears were soon realized...after a stop at Pittsburgh to pick up an Air National Guard unit that was to provide ground security for our "compound" (more like a prison camp) at Cairo West airfield, we were off. I wasn't too shocked at stopping at Gander for fuel. As we approached the airport, a friendly flight attendent pionted out where another Miami-based charter carrier plane crashed in the 1980s..killing 250 US service members. That was an omen I preferred not to think about. The terminal was nice...in a 1960's style. A plaque on the wall noted it was opened in 1960 by HRH the Queen, not long before a new generation of passenger jets started bypassing the airfield on their flights to and from Europe. Outside, a pair of Heavylift AN-124's were on the ramp, one bringing spare parts for the other that went unserviceable. Other than that, a couple of executive jets were the only other planes in sight. After a nice bit of ice cream, we were off again...this time to the US Navy base in Iceland. Thankfully, it was a short stop. I walked around the field a bit, looking at the volcanic rock and noticing that the hot water in the mens restroom smelled like sulphur...appearently they use naturally hot water.
I thought the worst had to be over...it must be a straight shot to Sicily...but no, we made a stop in Shannon Ireland. Lovely airport, very friendly female staff memners, a nice pub, closed of course.
Off again, this time we had a nice view of the Riveria before letting down in Sigonella, Sicily. It was as pretty as the travel posters show. Unfortunately, most my time ther was spent in the Navy terminal, hitting up the vending machines for something to eat.
By now, wew had been up well over 24 hours...sitting in cramped seats. I would have given anything for a shower...or something to put me to sleep as I'm not a big sleeper on aircraft.
Finaly, we approached Egypt. Being my first trip there I was excited about seeing something....something other than the inside of a 20 year old Boeing.
Foe years I'dd heard of Cairo West airfield, I was told it was the main military base near the capitol..and foolishly i expected something to be there. We we got offthe plane, nothing was in sight. We had been parked quite a distance from the "active" side of the base.
Over the next few weeks, I had some strange experiences ...watching Egyptian soldiers jump (some willingly, others less so) out of the back of a Starlifter, a crazy minibus drive through Cairo..escorted by two cars of armed Egyptian intelligence/security agents..(our bus driver had been told not to stop...for anything...as it was thought we were targets for a terror attack...so the drive through the crouded streets looked like a old Keystone Cops silent film), Armed guards guarding the doors of a resturant we stopped at for lunch. Bets of all, I got to spend a day at the Pyramids and at the Egyptian museum...where I was the only person in the room when I looked at the King Tut treasures. Unfortunately, the reason for the high security precautions were made clear as the next day Al Queda exploded bombs at a number of US Embasies in Africa. After that we were locked in our compund. So I then had to amuse myself by talking the fire crew into letting drive the crash truck...and hosing down a Military Security car with its water cannon (it did need a wash) and trying to get clandestine photos of the base air defense sites and F-4s.
Back to the flight...more than 25 hours en route (If I figured the time changes correctly)....and five countries (Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Italy and Egypt) in one day. On the way home, the pub at Shannon was open, and I got the chance to call my wife, who was in the UK visiting her sister. I returned home...to no welcome from anyone...even my dogs were away in a kennel. Still, it was an eventful trip...flying a quarter of the way around the world in a short haul airliner.

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19 years 11 months

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Excellent! :D

It reads like the a description of the old Imperial Airways runs to the Colonies.

Thanks for telling us. :)

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20 years 10 months

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Great story of an not-so-great experience. Thanks for sharing J Boyle.

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18 years 5 months

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I haven't personally heared of anything like that but it is certainly a topic worth considering. I'm good friends with an airline captain of Royal Dutch Airlines. Perhaps I shall contact him on the matter.

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19 years 11 months

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Sometimes the pilots fly drunk on airline traffic.
Hmmm. I hadn't noticed that line.....

That's a pretty serious allegation, chornedsnorkack.

Got anything to back it up?

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Mayday Mayday Mayday. I'm sorry to be completely THICK but can anyone remind me how to start an new thread. I've only done it once and have spent the last half an hour trying to figure out how I did it (Perhaps I'm geting old or something).

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19 years 11 months

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From the main "Commercial Aviation" page, click on the "New Thread" button towards the left, underneath "Trip Reports".

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I say, Thankyou ever so much!!! You are a lifesaver. :)

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Cases

Hmmm. I hadn't noticed that line.....

That's a pretty serious allegation, chornedsnorkack.

Got anything to back it up?


Yes. At least two cases known at Northwest Airlines (of pilots who actually flew and were caught after landing).

There are several more cases which ran through news where pilots were caught trying to fly drunk (but were stopped from actually taking off).

Member for

18 years 7 months

Posts: 261

i remember reading a story in a magazine some years ago written by a passenger on an old airliner operated by a smaller chinese (?) airline in the airspace over china / russia way. It may have been a made-up tale, but it made me smile at the time.

The story goes that a disagreement broke out between 2 flight attendants - this became more heated and one of the pilots came out of the cockpit and tried to calm things down, to no avail.

As the shouting and sculffling became louder, the other pilot also comes out to try to restore peace. This has the desired effect and the fight gets broken up and the protaganists sent to different ends of the aicraft.

At this point the pilot and mate go to return to the cockpit to find the door firmly locked shut.

The passenger relaying the tale then tells of watching the two of them spend ten minutes battering the door down with fire-exstinguishes etc, whilst trying to calm the passengers by shouting about "autopilots" and "plenty of fuel left"

They managed to get back in and an uneventfull flight followed. (allegedly) :)