British Deploy Weapon Against ‘Air Rage’

The British government is charging into the battle against “air rage” with a new law, effective Sept. 1, that will punish disruptive passengers with penalties ranging up to an “unlimited fine and/or two years imprisonment.”

The new offense, called “acting in a disruptive manner,” is broadly defined. Besides threatening or disorderly behavior, it includes using “any threatening, abusive or insulting words” directed at crew members.

The crackdown by the Transport Ministry has long been sought by British Airways, which in the last two years has tightened its own policies on disruptive travelers. These include refusing to board drunken passengers and issuing yellow “final warning” cards with threats to report disruption to the police.

Ironically, although air rage incidents have been widely publicized recently in the U.S. and abroad, British Airways reported only 122 such incidents from March 1998 to March 1999--a decrease from the more than 260 incidents it reported for 1997.