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International: Over 10,000 air rage incidents worldwide in 2015 (not a laser)

There were 10,854 incidents of unruly passengers in 2015, according to the International Air Transport Association. With over 13 million flights, this means there was one “air rage” incident for every 1,205 flights. The total is an increase over 2014’s 9,316 reported incidents.

In 11 percent of incidents, there was “physical aggression towards passengers or crew, or damage to the aircraft,” IATA reported.

IATA’s Director General stated “There is no easy answer to stem the rise in reported unruly behavior. We need a balanced solution in which all stakeholders can collaborate. The industry’s core principles can help to manage the small percentage of passengers who abuse alcohol. And it must be balanced with efforts by governments taking advantage of all their deterrence mechanisms….”

From a
September 28 2016 press release from the International Air Transport Association. LaserPointerSafety.com is publishing this as an interesting comparison with the number of worldwide incidents of laser illuminations of aircraft, which are roughly on the same order of magnitude as that of air rage incidents.