Unruly Airline Passengers to Be Addressed in New Convention

Airlines grow weary and helpless as trends of unruly passengers strengthen. In a bout to better address these bad behaviors (and hopefully sanction them), Geneva-based group International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that it would be holding a new convention on March 2014.

According to Reuters, the group aims to find possibilities in allowing the captain and crew of airlines to subdue these on-board offenders and provide better in-flight experience to everyone.

"Unruly passenger behaviour...is on the increase," Tim Colehan of IATA shares " It is a problem which our crews and other travellers face every day," he continues.

Countless cases have plagued various airlines for years now. A long list includes a French film star finding the need to relieve himself in the gangway, a couple having First Class sex, an American watching porn and soccer fans fighting.

There have been over 15,000 reports cited to the IATA since 2007, with the captain and crew finding no ways to solve the issue as jurisdictions vary from one country to the next, which leads to offenders leaving the plane unscathed.

Colehan relays that one woman who was traveling from London to Thailand threw liquor at the flight crew and shouted abuses to them along with other passengers, only to disembark the plane with no sanctions.

Another incident involved a very drunk man aboard Icelandair last January who downed a whole bottle of duty-free alcohol, choked the person next to him and screamed that the plane was going to crash. The flight crew had to secure him with duct tape on his seat throughout the rest of the flight.

IATA says that the rules and laws surrounding these matters are unclear under the 1963 Tokyo Convention. Instead of properly addressing these behaviors, airline cabin crews are more scared of being sued for assault, should they choose to restrain a passenger.

The convention is expected to be led by the International Civil Aviation Organization and will be held in Montreal.

Colehan states, "We are confident there will be a new convention, but - with so many governments having to agree - we have to wait to see how it turns out."