Ask Captain Lim

Air rage is not something new. It is the label that is new, not the condition itself. The rage response can be said to arise from the stress of air travel coupled with the individual's irrationality from ill-mannered behavior of drunken travelers to blatant violence. Passengers have attacked flight attendants and other fellow passengers for the most trivial offences.

According to the International Air Transport Association, incidents of air rage or the propensity of passengers who lost their cool in the air has increased by almost 500 % in the last half of the 1990s. This increase is also due to more people being able to travel as compared to the past where air journey were for the privileged few. These category of passengers, similar to those who take the everyday form of transport, don't see why they should obey orders like the prohibition of smoking or use of the cell phone in the air.

In the last 2 years, at least 3 people have died as a result of violent actions by enraged fellow travelers.

One of the major cause of air rage is due to drunkenness. In April 2001, a Briton was jailed in Spain for 4 years for smashing a vodka bottles into a stewardess' face, twin sisters were arrested for assaulting crew on a flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, a 52 years old Russian was accused of grabbing one passenger by the throat and stabbing another with a lighted cigarette lighter.

My advice - stay away from a person who appears to be drinking heavily. Request for a change of seating or keep the flight attendant informed of a potential drunkard.