Another day, another disrupted flight.
Ever since the pandemic began abating and people began traveling again, there’s been a steady deluge of stories about bad behavior on airlines, from one allegedly intoxicated passenger trying to kiss a flight attendant on a Delta flight to an American Airlines passenger allegedly urinating on their fellow traveler.
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The reasons for this, according to experts, is generally attributed to post-traumatic stress, rising levels of anxiety and other mental health issues from the pandemic, including in some cases marked increase in alcohol use. An intensely polarized political climate that conditions some people to see their fellow citizens as opponents is also thought to be a cause.
The latest instance of bad behavior happened on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver, as a passenger was asked to leave, and was later cited for hitting an airline employee with an intercom phone, according to the airline and police.
Frontier Airlines. (ULCC) Flight 708 was set to fly to Tampa from Denver International Airport, when according to the airlines’s statement, a female passenger “became belligerent onboard and was asked to deplane. As she was deplaning, she picked up an intercom phone and struck a flight attendant with it.”
The airline said in a statement that “unfortunately,” it didn’t “have information on the flight,” so the circumstances of the woman’s aggression are unknown.
The Denver Police Department said the passenger was cited for assault in connection with the incident. The flight eventually reached Tampa around 5:30 a.m. local time, a four-hour delay, according to FlightAware tracking data.
After the woman was released by the police, she was able to book another flight.
The Federal Aviation Authority has received reports of at least 670 unruly airline passengers in 2023 as of May 14, the US transportation agency’s statistics showed, while there were 2,455 such incidents reported in 2022.
