There is a growing number of unruly passengers. Last weekend, another incident transpired involving a violent passenger assaulting a flight attendant. And in the process, a Southwest flight attendant lost two teeth.
Southwest spokesperson Chris Mainz confirmed the incident. According to Mainz, the assault happened during a Southwest flight from Sacramento to San Diego. In an email, Mainz said that the passenger became aggressive and abusive after ignoring standard inflight instructions. Law enforcement arrested the passenger shortly after.
According to the president of TWU Local 556 Lyn Montgomery, “This past weekend, one of our flight attendants was seriously assaulted resulting in injuries to the face and a loss of two teeth”. She added that “Unfortunately, this is just one of many occurrences”. According to the union, Southwest recorded 477 misconducts just from April 8 to May 15. Montgomery described these incidences to have “reached an intolerable level”.
TWU Wants More Safeguards
For TWU, they want more safeguards for flight attendants. Montgomery said that “today’s traveling environment requires a new level of firmness in both tone and direction to ensure proper control in the cabin of our aircraft”.
There is a zero-tolerance policy on unruly passengers. However, the problem persists even if unruly passengers are fined thousands of dollars for bad behavior onboard. Among the most common problems faced by airlines is the non-compliance of some passengers to the existing mask policy. Despite CDC easing its mask guidelines, this doesn’t involve airports and airlines. It means that everyone including passengers and crew needs to wear masks in airports and airlines.
If authorities don’t take action, the Southwest flight attendant will not be the last victim of unruly passengers. The union proposes three things to minimize, if not, eradicate these incidences. One, the union wants the airline to remind passengers that misbehavior on board can result in fines and even imprisonment. Next, the union wants the airline to be consistent with its policy. The union wants offenders to not be able to fly with Southwest. And lastly, the union wants the US government to increase Federal Air Marshals. And also, marshals should act fast whenever a crew is threatened.
