C8 The BulleTin • Sunday, June 27, 2021
As passengers return to air plane
travel, bad behavior skyrockets
BY DAVID KOENIG
AP Airlines Writer
Air travel can be difficult in
the best of times, with cramped
planes, screaming babies, flight
delays and short tempers.
Throw in a pandemic,
and the anxiety level can rise
quickly.
That has led to confronta-
tions with flight attendants and
other unruly behavior, includ-
ing occasional fights that get
captured and replayed end-
lessly on social media.
Airlines have reported about
3,000 cases of disruptive pas-
sengers since Jan. 1, according
to a spokesman for the Fed-
eral Aviation Administration,
which began tracking it this
year. About 2,300 of those inci-
dents involved passengers who
refused to obey the federal re-
quirement to wear a face mask.
Over the past decade, the
FAA investigated about 140
cases a year for possible en-
forcement actions such as
fines. This year, it was nearly
400 by late May.
Things have gotten so bad
that the airlines and unions
for flight attendants and pilots
sent a letter to the U.S. Justice
Department on Monday urg-
ing “that more be done to deter
egregious behavior.”
“The federal government
should send a strong and con-
sistent message through crim-
inal enforcement that com-
pliance with federal law and
upholding aviation safety are
of paramount importance,” the
letter said, noting that the law
calls for up to 20 years impris-
onment for passengers who in-
timidate or interfere with crew
members.
Trade group Airlines for
America sent a separate letter
to the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration acknowledging
that the “vast majority of pas-
Charlie Riedel/AP
Airlines have reported about 3,000 cases of disruptive passengers
since Jan. 1, according to a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Admin-
istration. It has gotten so bad that the airlines, flight attendants and
pilots sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department on Monday urging
“that more be done to deter egregious behavior.”
sengers” comply with the rules
but “unfortunately, we con-
tinue to see onboard behavior
deteriorating into heinous acts,
including assaults, threats and
intimidation of crewmembers
that directly interfere with the
performance of crewmember
duties and jeopardize the safety
and security of everyone on
board the aircraft.”
The FAA announced a “ze-
ro-tolerance” policy against
disruptive behavior on flights
back in January. The agency
is attempting to levy fines that
can top $30,000 against more
than 50 passengers and has
identified more than 400 other
cases for possible enforcement.
U.S. airlines have banned
at least 3,000 passengers since
May of last year, and that
doesn’t include two of the larg-
est, American and Southwest,
which declined to provide fig-
ures.
Airlines have stripped some
customers of frequent-flyer
benefits, and in rare cases, pi-
lots have made unplanned
Surf
Continued from C1
Lopez, who has mentored
Chun and others, helped shape
the boards that Chun now sells.
The boards are selling for about
$600 a pop, he said. So far only
about 50 to 100 surfboards
have been sold since Chun
launched Bend Surf in 2021.
“There’s something about
surfing that is unique. The fact
that our waves go away in the
winter and change depend-
ing on the river flow makes
it so special,” Chun said. “I’m
learning something new and
Gerry (Lopez) gets to share his
knowledge and gets to pass it
on. It’s a fulfilling thing that
I’m doing.”
Snowboarding with Lopez
Nicol said he met Lopez
while snowboarding at the Big
Wave Challenge at Mt. Bach-
elor, an annual event inspired
by Lopez. The pair struck up a
conversation about board de-
signs, and Lopez offered up the
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
James Nicol, owner of SnoPlank,
works on a skateboard inspired
and designed by Gerry Lopez.
templates for the shapes he had
designed, Nicol said. That was
in 2016.
“They were these beau-
tiful longboard shapes, and
we made few and they really
worked well,” he said. “After
that we started doing seasonal
releases of the collaborated
boards during the summer
landings to remove unruly
passengers. Pilots and flight at-
tendants now routinely make
pre-flight announcements to
remind passengers about fed-
eral regulations against inter-
fering with crews.
“All of that is helpful, and if
we didn’t have that I can only
imagine how much worse it
would be,” said Sara Nelson,
president of the Association of
Flight Attendants, “but this is
clearly not taking care of the
whole problem. We have to do
a lot more. I have never, ever
seen an environment like this.”
Mike Oemichen has been a
flight attendant for seven years
and he, too, says he has never
seen so much bad behavior on-
board. He recounted a recent
incident in which he and other
flight attendants had just com-
pleted the safety briefing for
passengers and were preparing
for takeoff when a fight broke
out between two men and a
woman accompanying one of
them.
“After 20 or 30 seconds we
months, and the decks just
kept getting better.”
Nicol’s business actually be-
gan in 2012 as a snowboarding
manufacturer, but he didn’t
start selling his craft snow-
boards and skateboards until
several years later, he said.
Over the years Nicol said
he has partnered with other
businesses to support causes in
the community. This summer,
June through September, Nicol
will donate the revenue from
the 2021 Gerry Lopez Street
Surfer skateboards to The
Conservation Alliance, which
awards funds to 20 grassroots
conservation groups in the
United States.
“It’s a more in-depth process
to make a snowboard,” Nicols
said. “But building skateboards
is an opportunity to work with
Gerry, who’s an incredible hu-
man and a legend in multiple
disciplines in sports. We’re also
able to do something good and
give back to the community.”
e
Reporter: 541-633-2117,
sroig@bendbulletin.com
were able to get the two male
passengers away from each
other, and we tried to calm ev-
eryone down,” Oemichen said.
“Then we went back to the
gate and had the passengers re-
moved.”
Oemichen suffered a con-
cussion when he hit his head
against an overhead bin during
the melee.
“We never figured out what
they were fighting over,” said
Oemichen, who spoke on con-
dition that his airline not be
named. He also handles griev-
ances for union members at his
airline.
The fear among flight at-
tendants is that things will get
worse this summer, as travel
continues to increase and
planes get more crowded. The
airline industry passed a mile-
stone earlier this month when
the Transportation Security
Administration announced
that more than 2 million peo-
ple streamed through U.S. air-
port security checkpoints for
the first time since early March
2020.
Airline bookings have been
picking up since around Feb-
ruary, as more Americans were
vaccinated against COVID-19.
Falling infection rates could,
however, make it much harder
for flight attendants to enforce
the federal mask-wearing rule,
which isn’t due to expire until
mid-September.
Some security experts think
lifting the mask requirement
will remove a key source of
tension — one with political
overtones in a politically di-
vided nation. But it could also
raise the anxiety of people who
worry about sharing space
with strangers while we’re still
in a pandemic.
“People on both sides of the
issue are acting badly,” Nelson
said.
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