Washington - Air rage is now "almost epidemic", reports Patricia Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. The number of incidents has grown "to a point where no one can ignore it," she writes in Details magazine.
The Boston Globe attributes the problem to crowded skies and overbooked flights.
According to Washington statistics, one out of every 100
passengers was bumped from a major airline flight during the first quarter of 1999. In June, one in three flights ran late and one in 200 pieces of checked luggage was lost, damaged, delayed or stolen.
Underlining air rage-related safety concerns, Friend writes of one incident where the pilot was so distracted, he landed without clearance from the tower. - Sapa