• Passenger interference is the singularly most pervasive security problem facing the aviation industry with thousands of events each year. Examples of passenger interference range from verbal intimidation to drunken rages which have injured other passengers and crew members. The potential exists for the loss of an aircraft in extreme situations.

• It cannot be determined unequivocally that passenger events are on the rise, because there is no one data base which is capturing information on all of them. However, strong evidence from some carriers’ data collection argues that the problem is on the rise; action must be taken to counter this threat.

• ALPA sponsored an international conference on this subject last April at which Dr. Jerrold Post, professor of psychiatry, George Washington University, cited several contributing factors to the rise of passenger interference events. These factors include: alcohol abuse and pathological intoxication; a feeling of entitlement by some passengers; fear of flying; and crowded conditions in the aircraft.

• Unbeknownst to most airline passengers, the Immigration and Naturalization Service places tens of thousands of involuntary deportees, many of whom are criminals or have criminal backgrounds, on commercial airline flights without an escort. Although there have been several notable incidents with transport of these individuals, the INS has not been responsive to calls for making such carriage safer.

• Prosecution of disruptive passengers faces several obstacles, including the lack of jurisdiction by local law enforcement to arrest. ALPA applauds efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s office, working with the FBI, to deputize local law enforcement officers so that they are granted the necessary authority and jurisdiction to make these arrests. ALPA is promoting this program nationwide to enhance the law enforcement’s ability to make arrests and obtain prosecutions.

• The Tokyo Convention, which was signed in 1963, has a "jurisdictional gap" which has precluded most States from prosecuting passengers on inbound airline aircraft from countries other than their own. The U.S. should support efforts to amend the Convention and encourage other countries to amend their national laws to accomplish closure of this jurisdictional problem.

• Other recommendations: airlines should adopt responsible alcohol service programs with the objectives of ensuring that passengers do not board while intoxicated and do not become so while flying; federal legislation should be amended to make interference with crew members in the performance of their official duties a crime, whether it is committed on the ground or in the aircraft; a passenger interference data base needs to be developed which can be utilized for studying and tabulating these crimes; and, the airline industry needs to study and develop recommendations regarding proposed limitations to carry-on baggage.

Return to June 11, 1998 Testimony