Air Rage

A few weeks ago I commented on the doctor being dragged from an overbooked United Airlines flight.  Since then there have been incidents of a mother hit by a stroller while boarding an American Airlines plane, followed by a heated confrontation between a flight attendant and passenger on the same flight, a brawl between customers and police over Spirit flight delays in Ft. Lauderdale and a full fist fight between two passengers on a Southwest flight as they deplaned in Los Angeles.  Is this a new, widespread phenomenon or just another case of the “summer of the shark attack”?

Despite Time Magazine labeling the summer of 2001 as the Summer of the Shark Attack, with other media outlets picking up the theme, it turned out to be just another case of hype from the news.  A University of Florida investigation yielded a different story.  “The annual total of 76 unprovoked attacks worldwide [in 2001] was less than the 85 recorded in 2000, and fatalities declined from 12 to five in the same period.”  This is typical of what happens when the news uncovers a supposed trend with scary consequences.  Now we have this barrage of stories about how badly the airlines treat customers, and Congress gets to show off by calling in the CEOs to grill them about policies and practices.

Perhaps this has something to do with expectations.  When commercial airlines first began service, air travel was a luxury, limited to those who could afford the high ticket prices, executives and movie stars.  People dressed up for the experience.  The common folks who had to travel long distances drove their own cars or took the bus, Greyhound or Trailways, which was relatively inexpensive and not very luxurious.

Now the buses have added more amenities: more comfortable seats with extra legroom, free Wi-Fi, no safety restrictions on phone use and individual power outlets.  Meanwhile, airlines have turned into fast versions of the older busses, where everyone is squeezed on and service is limited.  The whole experience has changed.

Compare this to “road rage,” a term created in the 1980s to describe aggressive or irate driving.  Media stories of road rage have increased from 4,000 per year in the late 1990s to over 13,000 by 2012.  It is often blamed on a combination of more vehicles on the road and an “atmosphere in this country [that] has people more stressed,” an atmosphere of stress that has been amplified over the past two years.  Yet when is the last time we heard of an incident of road rage highlighted and played over and over on the news?  By now it’s old news.  But when the current state of hyper-stress in society is manifest on an airplane instead of behind the wheel and captured with a viral smartphone video, it becomes a headline.  When it happens two or three times (out of 2.5 million domestic airline passengers per day), it takes on the appearance of a serious pattern, like the summer-of-the-shark-attack.

We must always be aware that the news media is in the business of selling news.  The best news will engage us through fear, disgust, curiosity or excitement.  Good pictures and exaggeration add to the sale.  If necessary they will make it up, for example by conducting a poll and then report the results of the poll as a surprising revelation.  They follow important trends, like the murder of black citizens by police last summer, or trivial trends, like these incidents of air rage; then drop them and move on when interest wanes or another, more enticing crisis crowds them out.  It’s up to us to think critically and distinguish between the two.

Critical Thinking About the United Airlines Fiasco

By now everyone has heard the news and seen pictures of the doctor being dragged from the United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville.  The Internet and network news went crazy with cell-phone videos of the incident.  The company stock is dropping based partially on talk of a boycott in protest.  The CEO apologized, but it’s too late; the damage is done.  Now Americans are pouring out prayers and sympathy for the doctor, but is this really justified?  

It is clear that the company screwed up to such an extent that they deserve the public relations disaster they are experiencing.  There were clearly other solutions.  Four seats were needed on the plane for crewmembers who had to be in Louisville (and rested) in the morning for uninterrupted service the next day.  Since there were no more flights available that night, the company could have used the thousands of dollars offered in vouchers to pay for ground transportation for the five-hour drive either for the bumped passengers or the crew.  Otherwise, they could have announced that the plane was not moving until that passenger got off and let peer pressure take over.  Instead they called in the airport security goons.

But something is missing.  According to earlier stories, the airline offered vouchers and motel to volunteers but got none.  Then they resorted to a random drawing to choose passengers to give up their seats.  What of the other three passengers?  They were not dragged from the plane, only the doctor.  How was he treated before being forcibly removed and how did he react?  The airline characterized him as "disruptive and belligerent.”  That is an opinion, but in the videos he certainly didn’t appear to be cooperative.

The big question in the midst of this outpouring of sympathy and prayers is, what was the underlying message?  It was there.  If people were alert and thinking instead of emotionally reacting to only the video, they could see it very clearly.  The underlying message from the doctor, and he might as well have stood up and shouted it at the rest of the passengers, was “I am more important than you!”

That’s right.  Three other passengers, who are receiving no media attention, cooperated with the airline in the legal exercise of their authority based on the agreement on every ticket.  “Federal rules dictate a carrier must first check whether anyone is willing to voluntarily give up their seat before then bumping flyers involuntarily if nobody comes forward.”  It’s the law.

So did the doctor react as the others did?  If someone else had been chosen, he would have sat back and enjoyed the flight with the message unspoken.  But when he was chosen, he reacted like a two-year-old who didn’t get his way.  He went limp, forcing security agents to drag him off.  He looked like a protester being removed from a picket line.  But remember what he was protesting – he was protesting his right, his firm belief, that he was better than everyone else on that flight.  If you had been on the flight, the implicit message figuratively being shouted in your face as he was dragged from the plane would have been, “I am more important than you, too!”

With that in mind, give him as much sympathy as you think he deserves, but don’t forget the message.  Also note that one interviewed passenger mentioned that she and her son “were sitting in the row directly behind…the doctor and his wife.”  Wait, yet another solution, if he had patients so desperately in need of attention the following morning, couldn’t he have turned to his wife and said, “Excuse me for imposing, Dear, but you know the situation.  Would you be so kind, and I promise to make it up to you.”  Given that information perhaps the patients were not the issue but merely a pretext for the real message, “I am more important than you.”